The consultants who design and deliver operations changes for the world’s largest asset managers, owners and servicers have a front-row view of what’s working, and what’s not.
When we recently sat down with several of the leading industry consultants at our inaugural Consultants’ Day in Boston, the conversation quickly moved past vendor selection checklists to what’s really shaping client programs in 2025 and beyond.
Here are the themes that stood out.
For decades, reconciliation defined how firms structured their middle and back offices. Every system was an island, so matching data became the day’s work.
With FundGuard, however, firms can now replace fragmented systems and the resulting dataflows with a unified accounting engine that eliminates reconciliation by design. This then moves the conversation from “how do we match data?” to “what controls do we want to set for each real-time view we can trust from the outset?”
For asset managers, that means fewer breaks and faster insights. For servicers, it opens a new generation of co-sourcing models where both sides see the same truth instead of reconciling across systems.
With technology enabling the market to mature beyond basic data aggregation, firms can now operate real-time, multi-book views across public and private assets, and should expect that capability embedded in daily production, not hoping their bolted-together systems deliver.
FundGuard’s IBOR maturity model identifies how resilient a firm’s investment operations really are: the higher the IBOR maturity, the less exposure to latency, manual controls, and hidden dependencies.
It’s why transformation programs that once stopped at data warehouses can now land squarely in accounting, where the granularity and truth of the data lives.
The convergence of public and private asset classes is forcing firms to confront the friction of running separate systems for every asset class.
Consultants describe clients trying to extend 20-year-old platforms built for listed securities into illiquid workflows, and running into timing, data, and connectivity challenges that stall progress.
With FundGuard, the emerging answer isn’t to bolt on another niche tool, but to modernize the core ledger so all assets across public and private markets run through the same engine. This is where real-time valuation, exposure management, and oversight become possible. A complete, timely, trustworthy, “total portfolio view.”
Every consultant in the room agreed: technology isn’t the slow part, data is. Two-thirds of implementation time is still spent on connectivity, pulling data out of aging systems and getting it into modern ones. Many firms still rely on overnight files even when APIs exist.
The firms making the fastest progress are those that treat data readiness as part of transformation, not a pre-condition to it, mobilizing cross-functional teams early to modernize delivery and ownership on modern tech that enables direct access so everyone looks at the same truth, and no data moves.
At the executive level, the case for modernization is simple: cost, control, and scalability.
A unified, cloud-native accounting platform cuts technology sprawl, reduces all reconciliation, and enables growth into new asset classes without a new system each time. As one consultant put it, “the question isn’t whether you can save headcount, but whether your existing architecture can grow with your business.”
Clients, implementation specialists and technology providers must align earlier in the process to de-risk delivery.
Rather than treating implementation as an afterthought, firms should bake partner expertise into early design and business-case stages, recognizing that transformation is as much about data and change management as it is about software and technology.
The takeaway?
Transformation isn’t a single project or platform, but a mindset shift.
The firms moving fastest are modernizing how those systems connect, consume data and evolve with the business.
That’s what’s on the minds of the consultants and FundGuard’s SMEs shaping the next generation of investment accounting, and why their perspective matters to every asset manager, owner, and servicer rethinking what resilience should look like in 2026.
See how FundGuard partners with consultants and clients to modernize investment accounting through our FundGuard Implementation Partner program.
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