Two misguided expectations when tapping asset services

Amid growing scrutiny from government and industry authorities as well as heightened competition in investment markets across the globe, asset services have now been providing the necessary support to asset management companies’ day-to-day operations.

The results of the outsourcing practice do not always satisfy the clients, however, and often, this “failure” of partnership can be attributed to the wrong expectations on the side of the fund managers. This article discusses two of these misguided notions when enlisting asset servicing firms:

Asset servicing is going to be a bargain. Many asset management firms are at a not-so-ideal business position when they do decide to tap outsourcing – and that is alright. However, some of them will tend to look at asset servicing specifically as a cure-all, and a means to make massive spending cuts on business procedures. And then they become surprised when they end up making a significant expense for the contract. In truth, asset servicing is in itself another form of investment. It is not a bargain in the sense of a buy-one-take-one promotion, but a bargain in the sense that a firm is able to save valuable time and resources for recruitment and training, purchase and maintenance of state-of-the-art solutions, and enlistment of actual experts in the field. In a way, this means gaining new talent and technology, but not with the usual amount of costs involved.

Only the asset servicing firm needs to adjust. A successful partnership will very much depend on the willingness of both parties to adjust. Inasmuch as a good outsourcing partner would like to avoid business interruption, asset servicing will result in some degree of change. Roles have to be handed over, after all, which might also result in some friction between the in-house staff and the third party firm. The latter will also inevitably introduce new methods for accomplishing the same goals, which might contradict commonly held views within the client’s organization. For instance, where living, breathing humans used to handle some tasks, many asset servicing firms would be keen on automation, believing that the delivery of many of these functions could be designed in a way that promotes accuracy, precision, and speed.

To avoid disappointment when tapping asset services, fund managers need to put forward their particular expectations at the negotiating table, before any agreements are signed. Contracts can always be reformulated to address each concern, to ensure the satisfaction of all parties in the end.

How Power Plays truly change the game

Daily Fantasy Hockey experts have focused on the importance of the power play in the game of hockey and in fantasy sports.  The power play creates an advantage for the team on the power play to score and thus creates points for the game and the daily fantasy player or players.  The more power plays that a team has, or that a fantasy player scores during, the higher value that team or player ranks. This is largely due to the fact that power plays open up a plethora of scoring opportunities for the team on the attack.  Powerplays are a result of a player occurring penalty time, thus leaving their team with one less player than the other.  All of the dynamics change in hockey, rules included, when either team is on a powerplay because scoring is a premium in this advantageous situation.

In the National Hockey League, also known as the NHL, the focus on the power play is on both parts of the game, the offense and the defense.  The NHL teams look to build a team with players that can perform well on the power play and also to defend well against the power play.  The salary cap in sports limit the roster as some top players are taking up a big portion of the teams spending, and thus teams focus on adding depth through defensive specialists for the power play Kill, as most of their high cost players are on the power play for scoring opportunities.

In Daily Fantasy Hockey the focus is on scoring, but the power play also allows for a bonus point for scoring on “special teams.”  If the team defending the power play score a goal short handed they are also granted a bonus point for a special team goal and even an assist on that goal.  Thus, the NHL and Fantasy Hockey spend a great deal of time analyzing the power play squads of every team, and again, that is both offense and defense. But in building your daily fantasy hockey roster, you will want to consider picking players that play on the power play as it has statistical advantage of scoring and the daily fantasy bonus point for a special teams point.