In 2025, fund administrators raising prices isn’t just frustrating — it’s unacceptable. Let’s be clear: these hikes aren’t coming from genuine innovation or improved service. They’re the result of industry missteps that managers and investors should no longer tolerate.

The Real Reasons Behind Rising Fees

• Staff Poaching at Irrational Salaries - Key offshore jurisdictions have seen staff poached with 50–100% pay hikes. Instead of building sustainable teams, firms are engaged in bidding wars that inflate costs and destabilize service quality.
• Race-to-the-Bottom Pricing Strategy - Many firms built their books by undercutting others to win mandates, not by adding value. Now, with margins squeezed and no differentiation, they’re passing the bill to managers.
• Failure to Reinvest in Technology – Instead of modernizing, many administrators layered cosmetic portals and dashboards over outdated, manual processes. Behind the curtain, staff are still re-keying data, reconciling errors, and relying on third-party platforms.
• Dependence on Third-Party Systems – Several admins don’t own their core technology. Some third-party providers have even gone out of business, leaving clients exposed. When you don’t control the backbone of your operations, you can’t deliver stability — only excuses.
• Over-Expansion and Debt - Others have overextended with costly global footprints, taken on debt, or executed poorly valued acquisitions. Now they’re trying to paper over bad balance sheets by raising client fees.

In the Age of AI, Excuses Don’t Fly

The timing makes it even more egregious. In an era where AI is reducing manual work, streamlining reporting, and cutting errors, raising fees for the same (or worse) service is a clear admission: these administrators failed to evolve.

Managers deserve administrators who reinvest in their platforms, embrace automation, and treat technology as the backbone of client service — not as an afterthought hidden behind a glossy interface.

The Formidium Difference

In 2025, most fund administrators are raising fees.

We’re doing the opposite: a three-year contract price freeze for any client whose strategy or complexity doesn’t materially change.

We can stand behind this promise because we:

• Own our technology - end-to-end, ensuring stability and innovation.
• Reinvest continually - in automation and true system integration.
• Build sustainable teams, - not cost-driven bidding wars.
• Grow responsibly –avoiding reckless debt or overpriced acquisitions.
• Align with clients’ interests, - not short-term markups.

Because raising fees isn’t progress. Delivering more value at the same price is.

Shalin Madan, Co-Founder - Formidium

Shalin Madan is a 25-year veteran of the Alternative Investments industry having served in senior investment roles for an institutional hedge fund of funds and multi-asset class family office, along with serving as CIO of Bodhi Tree Asset Management, a quantitative macro hedge fund he founded in 2017.