World Investor Week: Can Fund Administrators Handle The Retail Capital Surge?

Opening up private markets to everyday investors has been the big story for a few years now.

This World Investor Week, running from 5 to 11 October as the 10th edition of IOSCO’s global campaign on investor education and protection, the spotlight falls on whether those investors are properly protected once they’re in.

Access is the part that’s moving quickly. The SEC has put forward proposals to let more advisers charge performance fees and to modernise interval funds; they argue that alternatives shouldn’t be reserved exclusively for the wealthiest. Meanwhile, Europe’s ELTIF 2.0 framework has opened up new retail channels into private assets.

Operational reality tells a different story. Reports from firms including BNY and Deloitte describe much of the private markets lifecycle as manual and disjointed, with figures still passing through spreadsheets, email and PDFs, even as emerging startups pitch finance automation. Investors accustomed to near real-time visibility in public market apps will struggle to accept quarterly PDFs and sluggish answers regarding fund valuations.

That’s where an operational headache turns into a question of confidence. So can fund administrators handle the retail capital surge, or will the data fall behind the investors?

Can Private Markets’ Systems Handle Everyday Investors?

Public market investors watch prices tick in real time, while private market investors cross their fingers and trust the quarterly valuation.

The SEC Investor Advisory Committee has recommended deeper disclosures on illiquid asset pricing so retail buyers can see how fund net asset values are calculated. Fund administrators occupy the central hub of this reporting workflow, tracking fees, liquidity parameters and risk exposure.

But the tech stack often falls short. Many older systems weren’t built for irregular data flows or a sudden influx of retail inquiries. Some wealth managers offering ELTIF 2.0 and similar semi-liquid products say ageing reporting set-ups push teams towards labour-intensive reconciliations or costly custom builds.

That’s why this is more than just efficiency. If reporting is late, inconsistent or hard to trace, new investors are left taking the numbers on trust, and trust is the one thing an industry courting everyday money can’t afford to lose.

So we asked experts across fund accounting, securitisation, investing and software whether the infrastructure is ready.

Our Experts

• Federico Basile, Founder And Managing Partner, Capital-Hill Securities
• Robert Belsky, CEO, Bob’s Bookkeepers
• Utkarsh Ahuja, Founder And Managing Partner, Moon Pursuit Capital
• David O’Malley, CEO, LemonEdge

Federico Basile, Founder And Managing Partner, Capital-Hill Securities

“The constraint is not the administrator’s software. It is that the assets underneath do not produce data at the frequency the product promises.

“A fund that strikes an official NAV monthly, sitting inside a wrapper that offers weekly dealing, has a gap that no system closes. What fills it is an estimate. Estimates are legitimate and widely used, but they are judgement, and judgement needs a named owner, a documented method and an audit trail. Most of the trust problems I see do not come from a wrong number. They come from a number nobody can explain six months later.

“So the spreadsheet is not the villain. An unreviewed spreadsheet is. A fee accrual that cannot be reconstructed day by day, a valuation with no second pair of eyes, a reporting pack where nobody can say who signed it – those fail an investor query regardless of the technology stack.”

Robert Belsky, CEO, Bob’s Bookkeepers

“The limiting factor in democratising private markets is not demand. It’s operations.

“There are already beautiful apps that allow individuals to invest in private funds, sometimes in minutes. Behind that interface, there are still typically accountants downloading and building files, performing manual reconciliations and moving data between systems manually. The model will not scale indefinitely.

“This wasn’t a problem when the investor base was concentrated. As high-net-worth and retail investors enter the market, they’re expecting the same experience they get from public markets: clean reporting, accurate balances and timely information.

“Ultimately, the data infrastructure will have to improve. Data collection, reconciliations, validation and reporting need to move towards automated workflows, powered by AI.”

Utkarsh Ahuja, Founder And Managing Partner, Moon Pursuit Capital

“Private markets can support more wealth and retail investors, but the infrastructure needs to be ready. Investors expect a clear, timely view of their holdings, performance and transactions. In many funds, information still moves across different systems and teams, which can lead to delays and manual reconciliation. That gets harder to manage as the investor base grows.

“The priority is to give managers, administrators and investors consistent, reliable data across the fund lifecycle, then automate routine accounting, reconciliation and reporting where it makes sense. AI can help with repetitive tasks, provided there are strong controls and human review. Expanding access is only part of the challenge; firms also need to deliver reliable reporting and investor service at scale.”

David O’Malley, CEO, LemonEdge

“Private markets cannot broaden access without strengthening the infrastructure underneath them.

“As more investors gain exposure to the asset class, expectations on transparency, reporting and access to accurate information are rising too. Yet much of the industry is still operating through legacy systems, spreadsheets and manual processes, with data often fragmented across different tools and teams.

“Those weaknesses do not stay behind the scenes. When data is siloed across disconnected tools and manual workflows, producing information that is accurate, timely and reliable becomes harder. For investors, that can directly affect confidence in the information they are relying on.

“For managers and administrators, the pressure is growing. Expansion in private markets has to be matched by stronger operational discipline. Accurate data, robust fund accounting and transparent reporting can no longer be treated as simply back-office concerns. They directly shape the quality of information investors receive.

“Technology and AI can help, but greater automation cannot come at the expense of control. As AI moves from simply answering questions to carrying out tasks within financial systems, firms need clear permissions, human review and accountability in how it is used.

“Private markets have spent years attracting a broader investor base. The industry now has to make sure the infrastructure behind that growth can deliver the accuracy, transparency and reliability those investors expect.”