Eze Software has launched functionality to help hedge funds calculate and collect incentive fees within an increasingly popular ‘1 or 30’ structure. Eze Investor Accounting is the first solution in the market to address the handling of these fees.

In recent years, investors have been looking for alternatives to the 2 and 20 fee structure that are better aligned with the need for consistent investment performance. The so-called 1/30 structure uses the Total Fee Limit Method to ensure that the investor retains 70 per cent of the profit generated for their investment in a hedge fund, capping the total fees to the manager at no more than 30 per cent of gross profits over a period of time. The model analyses the management and performance fees for a time period versus a portfolio’s performance and limits the negative impact from fees on an investor’s alpha in underperforming years.
 
Eze Investor Accounting has automated this calculation and analysis, ensuring that managers can efficiently review the total fee inputs and results, and report consistent and accurate fees to their allocator clients. Using Eze Investor Accounting allows the manager’s back office to avoid manually calculating and tracking the 1/30 model, and rapidly respond to any investor queries regarding the fees.
 
“This is a very difficult calculation to be able to track manually through Excel,” says Bill Neuman (pictured), Managing Director, Product Management & Development. “Because the fee structure requires tracking cumulative performance against benchmark over time, the market needs technology to manage continuous rebalancing. With this tool, we are responding to demand for the delivery of a clean capital balance with minimal processing.”
 
The incentive fee structure, popularised by the Teacher Retirement System of Texas and its consultant Albourne, has been generating interest among allocators. In addition to calculating the fee split between the investor and managers, Eze Investor Accounting gives users the ability to adjust the time period over which the fee analysis occurs and changes are calculated, include the calculations on capital reports, the ability to use estimates and close periods, and recall data on custom capital reports as needed.