Cohen & Co | Best ETF Auditor
Headquartered out of Ohio but with offices in multiple states and a planned international expansion, Cohen & Co has always punched above its perceived weight in its asset management coverage, particularly in the ETF industry.
Brett Eichenberger, Partner and market leader, Asset Management, at the firm explains that the asset management group’s business includes a wide range of registered and private funds.
“In particular for the registered funds business we are the fourth largest auditor of registered funds in the country,” Eichenberger says. “In ETFs, we are the second largest auditor in the country and work with more unique advisers than any other accounting firm in both registered funds and ETFs.”
In this context a unique adviser is a sponsor or issuer of ETFs, and due to the size of the firm’s client base, Cohen & Co works with issuers launching some of the most innovative ETFs.
“We are always working with different types of products,” Eichenberger says, “whether options-based, crypto, fixed income, international or derivative-based products. The size and scale of our business enables us to be a significant resource for the ETF ecosystem, which we very much value.
The firm utilises technology to do a quality audit in an efficient manner, he says, noting that this past year has seen a lot of income-based products. “Whether that’s using derivatives or Swaps or leveraged-based products,” Eichenberger says, also commenting that there are lot of products based on crypto assets.
“With the crypto products there are some custody requirements that mean you have to modify the audit process a little bit,” he says. “The crypto world is new and many are ‘33 Act based products and some are migrating toward ’40 Act products. There are daily distributing funds and options overlay strategies – the ones that have leverage use a lot of Swaps to gain exposure to their particular security.”
Looking forward, the firm wants to continue to attract talent in the US and to expand its geographical reach. “We want to grow our asset management industry group both from an audit and tax perspective and continue to invest in technology in order to keep audits of the highest quality and in an efficient manner,” Eichenberger says.
“We also plan to expand overseas, and we think that the market in Europe, particularly, is a growing market. There are a lot of US managers that want to launch products overseas and many European managers launching ETF products in the US. We are excited to be a resource for our clients as they grow on both sides of the Atlantic.”
Eichenberger also notes that with the approval of the ETF share class, many legacy mutual funds will launch an ETF share class. He also predicts more crypto-based products over the coming year, and more defined outcome products.
“Everyone has to put their heads down and solve these complicated products for the ETF eco-system to ensure they operate in an efficient and stable manner,” he says.
“We believe we won this award because of the value and technical quality of the Cohen & Co client experience and also because we are a recognised thought leader in the ETF industry.
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