COO consulting for asset managers and fund managers.
The senior operational layer — governance frameworks, ODD readiness, service-provider oversight, regulatory operations, and the institutional posture investors expect from any manager seeking institutional capital.
Operations as a competitive advantage, not a cost center.
For institutional allocators, operations is now half the underwrite. A strong investment thesis with weak operations fails ODD. A more modest investment thesis with institutional operations passes; and gets the allocation.
The operational standard required to pass institutional ODD has risen meaningfully over the past five years: cyber and IT controls, segregation of duties, written policies and procedures, valuation governance, business continuity testing, vendor management, regulatory engagement protocols. Building this in parallel to running an investment process is unrealistic for any emerging or mid-sized manager.
Our COO consulting builds the operational framework, supports the ODD response, and provides ongoing senior oversight. The objective is simple: make operations a reason allocators say yes, not a reason they walk.
What COO consulting covers.
A representative scope. Specific engagements are tailored to fund structure, regulatory jurisdiction, and existing operational maturity.
- 01Operational due diligence (ODD) readiness & response
Pre-ODD assessment, gap remediation, document repository build, mock ODD walkthrough, and live ODD response coordination. We've sat both sides of ODD — we know where investors look first.
- 02Operational policies & procedures (P&Ps)
The full institutional document set: valuation policy, best execution, allocation, side letters, MNPI, personal trading, vendor management, business continuity, cyber, AML and KYC. Drafted to your fund's actual practice; not boilerplate.
- 03Governance framework design
Investment committee charters, valuation committee, operating committee, risk committee. Meeting cadence, agenda templates, minutes discipline, escalation matrices, and audit-trail requirements.
- 04Service-provider selection & oversight
Administrator, custodian, prime broker, auditor, legal, tech vendor RFPs. Selection scoring, reference checks, contract negotiation support, ongoing SLA management, and annual provider review.
- 05Regulatory operations
DFSA, FSRA, and VARA operational reporting cadence, periodic returns coordination, regulatory query handling, and operational compliance with applicable rulebook chapters.
- 06Business continuity & disaster recovery
BCP and DR plan design, RTO/RPO definition, annual testing protocols, and incident response playbooks. The documents and exercises that ODD teams actually look for.
- 07Cyber & information security framework
ISMS design aligned with ISO 27001 principles, vendor cyber assessment, employee training cadence, and incident reporting protocols.
- 08Trade lifecycle oversight
End-to-end trade lifecycle mapping — execution, allocation, confirmation, settlement, reconciliation, exception handling — with control points and segregation-of-duties verification.
- 09Cash & collateral management oversight
Cash policy framework, signatory protocols, FX hedging operations review, and collateral management for funds using derivatives or financing.
Where most ODDs actually fail.
Sophisticated allocators don't fail managers on the obvious things. They fail them on the under-attended ones — the gaps that signal operational immaturity. These are the areas we focus on first.
Valuation governance
Documented valuation policy, independent pricing source verification, level-3 asset escalation procedures, and an active (not nominal) valuation committee.
Cyber controls
Specific, evidenced controls; not just "we have antivirus." MFA enforcement, vendor cyber assessment, phishing simulation cadence, and tested incident response.
Vendor management
Documented selection rationale, ongoing SLA monitoring, annual provider review, and a real exit plan for each critical vendor.
Segregation of duties
Clear separation between trading, valuation, settlement, and reconciliation — even in small teams. The matrix has to exist on paper and in practice.
Side-letter compliance tracking
Most-favored-nation provisions, MFN exemptions, fee tier compliance, and reporting timelines tracked at the LP level; not in someone's memory.
Business continuity testing
Plans that have actually been tested in the last 12 months, with documented results and remediation actions. ODD teams ask for the test report.
Common questions on this practice.
How is COO consulting different from middle-and-back-office services?+
COO consulting sets the operational framework — policies, governance, oversight structure, regulator-facing posture, ODD response strategy. It's the senior layer that decides what the operations should look like. Middle-and-back-office is the operational execution within that framework — actually processing trades, reconciling positions, handling AML and KYC. They're complementary: COO designs and oversees, M&BO operates and executes.
What does ODD readiness actually involve?+
Investor operational due diligence (ODD) is now standard for any institutional allocation — pension funds, fund of funds, family offices, insurance allocators. It typically involves an on-site or virtual review covering 200+ questions across operations, controls, governance, IT/cyber, and counterparty oversight. ODD readiness means having the operational policies, evidence trail, system controls, and disaster recovery in place before the ODD team arrives. We've seen well-prepared managers pass ODDs that surprised them; we've seen better-positioned managers fail them. Preparation is the differentiator.
Do you handle DFSA, FSRA, or VARA regulatory operations?+
We handle the operational side of UAE regulatory engagement: regulatory operational reporting, periodic returns, regulatory filings, regulator query response coordination, and compliance with the operational requirements set out in the relevant rulebook. For licensed advisory and substantive regulatory advice, we work alongside specialist regulatory counsel — we do not replace them, and we do not hold ourselves out as licensed compliance advisors.
Can you design service-provider RFPs?+
Yes. Administrator RFPs, custodian RFPs, prime broker selection, audit firm RFPs, and tech vendor RFPs. We design the RFP process — requirements, scoring framework, demo scripts, reference call protocols; and run it through to selection. We don't take referral fees from any party we recommend, which is the only way an RFP process is actually useful.
Do you provide ongoing COO oversight or just project work?+
Both. Most COO consulting starts as a project — a framework build, an ODD readiness sprint, a service-provider transition; and converts to an ongoing oversight retainer once the framework is in place. The retainer covers monthly operational risk review, quarterly governance attendance, annual policy refresh, and ad-hoc judgment calls when something operational comes up that needs a senior view.
What size fund manager benefits most from COO consulting?+
Two main groups. First, emerging managers (under $300M AUM) where the operational complexity warrants senior oversight but not a full-time COO — typically that is right after first institutional capital arrives. Second, mid-sized managers ($300M–1.5B) where the COO role exists but lacks specific capability — for example, a COO without OMS implementation experience, or without ODD-handling background. We supplement rather than replace.
A review of ODD readiness.
Whether you are 6 weeks or 6 months out, the conversation is the same. A discovery call tells us where the gaps are and what would make a real difference before allocators arrive.