Partnering closely with clients can make a critical difference to their investor experience and help them achieve their strategic vision.
BBH appoints an Investor Relations Manager (TA IRM*) as a main contact point for all aspects of the Transfer Agency (TA) product and service delivery. This person is embedded within our TA business and supports the day-to-day servicing of clients, their distributors and investors. The TA IRM also oversees a shareholder services team, responsible for providing a high-quality investor experience. More broadly, the collaboration across BBH between our TA IRMs, Client Service Managers and Relationship Managers and each client leads to proactive support across all our services.
Here, three of our IRMs discuss how their roles are adapting to changing investor needs.
How would you define a successful investor experience and how does having a dedicated IRM/shareholder services team play into that?
Sabrina Foley: Key aspects of the IRM role include close coordination and clear communication with our clients, their distributors and investors, and internal stakeholders across BBH. By closely managing our shareholder services team (which liaises directly with investors), we get vital insights on how we can continuously evolve and improve the investor experience we offer.
I believe the way the IRM role is handled at BBH is what makes us different."
Alexandre Frick: We have one single access point for clients from which we can cascade information across all our TA teams, who we talk to on a very regular basis. Because we streamline communication for clients, we can respond faster and ensure efficient use of their time. We also develop a deeper understanding of each client's business, allowing us to identify and implement new and scalable solutions that meet their needs and their investors’ needs.
Are you noticing any new trends evolving across your client base and how does this impact your approach to investor experience?
Lisa O’Connor: We have seen increased questions about private markets and ETFs, with clients in Ireland showing strong interest in our ETF offering and how this can support them as they look at offering new products. This year, we launched our first private markets investment fund in Dublin, and as we know from our existing private markets clients in other locations there's a clear demand within this space for a high-quality investor experience throughout the investment lifecycle.
Sabrina Foley: Here in Luxembourg, we have serviced private markets funds for many years but more recently, we are seeing clients increasingly offering private markets exposure via more mainstream distribution channels. There is currently much discussion around semi-liquid products and clients want to know about solutions we can offer in this area, given our success to date in helping clients design a robust operating model. We attribute this to the fact we do not impose a silo structure which separates alternatives and traditional investments.
Alexandre Frick: It is an exciting time to be part of our industry because of the way technology is transforming the market landscape. We are leveraging innovative technologies to boost efficiency and reduce risk, moving away from paper-based processes and this last point makes for an improved investor experience. Being highly experienced in connecting to platforms via Application Programming Interfaces (API) has helped us streamline the account opening process. We continue to invest heavily in digitizing the client and investor experience through our TA Infuse and IOB+ technologies. We are also creating innovative solutions, our liquidity management tool (BBH LMT), launched recently, to help our clients meet their regulatory obligations.
What does your typical day-to-day activity involve?
Alexandre Frick: My day-to-day work involves liaising closely with internal BBH teams, clients, and investors to make sure that transaction processing and all the other various important touch points are met in order to meet client expectations. To succeed as an IRM you need to adopt a client mindset and a thorough understanding of what they are looking to achieve and of all the operational aspects involved. I also spend significant time with my clients to better understand their strategic vision so we can ensure that our own investments are supporting the growth of their business.
Lisa O’Connor: At BBH we employ a global operating model and multi-lingual team that allows us to ‘follow the sun’ via support from our global teams across Asia, Europe, and the US. Our single global technology platform and collaboration across locations allow us to be highly coordinated and able to offer a seamless service experience. We make it as easy as possible for our clients to oversee their TA operations and our Infuse client portal allows them to view, customize, and package their data, enabling faster and more informed decision making and providing transparent information in real time.
* The TA IRM will also function as a point of escalation for any concerns or issues that may be arising during the day-to-day interactions with the client or their investors. Furthermore, the TA IRM is also the main contact for any requests for new TA services, reporting or technology development.
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