Our Private Equity Accounting and Tax Service is an offshoot of our work with wealthy families. We have been providing these services for nearly ten years through Bender Lane Advisory, LLC and, individually, with prior employers.
Our core service encompasses all bookkeeping and record keeping activities. These also include maintaining capital accounts and acting as your liaison with auditors. In addition, we either prepare all necessary tax reports or work with outside firms at your direction.
The decision to use us to provide your accounting services entails two fundamental considerations: (1) the choice to outsource a fundamentally important task and (2) the choice of Bender Lane Advisory over other service providers.
Most private equity firms do not consider internal accounting to be a strategic task. Often, it is viewed as a necessary evil and a cost of operation that should be minimized.
However, a failure to provide an expected level of reporting and support to investors can hinder fund-raising and affect the public view of your firm's competence.
We share sensitivity to cost as accounting staff is typically employed by the management company and paid with a potion of the management fee.
This is unfortunate. Many fund agreements identify accounting and tax preparation costs as fund level expenses. However, but for annual audit and tax preparation fees, much of the total expense is not properly shifted to the fund but instead paid by the manager as compensation to its employees.
By the simple act of outsourcing these services, you have the opportunity to shift the entire cost of fund accounting to the fund itself. Depending on the operation of the waterfall formulas in your fund agreements, some portion of the cost may eventually reduce carry. Nevertheless, a 20% expense is better than a 100% expense.
Beyond the benefits of cost shifting, outsourcing is often less expensive and more efficient. We are located in inexpensive upstate New York. It is likely that our facilities and staffing costs are less than yours. We also do not have to compete with many other similarly situated firms for qualified staff. This fosters continuity.
Further, we have the opportunity to share skilled employees across multiple clients which promotes efficiency. You may not have a fully engaged tax department or, perhaps, not have one at all. We can assign to you just the proper amount of tax expertise necessary to meet your needs.
The preceding advantages apply to other firms as well as Bender Lane Advisory. Why choose us?
We have over twenty years experience managing the wealth of your private clients. We know what they need and what they expect from you. In turn, we tailor your reporting package in a fashion that optimizes their level of satisfaction.
Secondarily, this knowledge of personal financial planning allows us to counsel you on proper structure for management entities, co-investment funds and compensation and benefit plans.
Based on years of experience, we are also adept at interpreting and developing waterfall model programs that will enable you to make your necessary accounting allocations, determine proper cash distributions and to perform "what-if" planning exercises.
In summary, outsourcing is the right decision strategically and Bender Lane Advisory is the right firm tactically.
Please contact us to discuss your needs.
