AUA (Assets Under Administration)

Assets under administration (AUA) is the total value of fund assets for which a fund administrator provides operational and reporting services, regardless of who makes the investment decisions. AUA is the primary measure of a fund administrator's scale and differs from AUM in that the administrator has no investment discretion: it services assets on behalf of fund managers who retain full control over investment decisions.

How it works

A fund administrator's AUA represents the aggregate of NAV (or fair value) across all the funds and managers it services. A large global fund administrator may have AUA of hundreds of billions of pounds or euros across thousands of fund entities. AUA is used by administrators to benchmark their scale, demonstrate operational capacity to prospective manager clients, and (in some cases) set service fees as a percentage of AUA.

The administrator's AUA is not the same as the combined AUM of its manager clients, for two reasons. First, AUA is typically based on fair value of assets rather than committed capital, so it excludes uncalled LP commitments. Second, where a manager uses multiple administrators for different fund entities or functions (for example, one administrator for fund accounting and another for investor services), AUA may be counted by each administrator for its scope of services, whereas AUM is counted once by the manager.

For fund administrators, AUA growth is both a commercial metric and an operational signal. Growing AUA requires corresponding investment in people, technology, and process: more LPs to onboard, more capital events to process, more NAV statements to produce, and more regulatory filings to submit. Administrators who grow AUA faster than their operational capacity create risk for their manager clients. Quality fund administrators demonstrate the ability to scale without degrading service levels or introducing processing errors.

Regulatory frameworks for fund administrators in certain jurisdictions include AUA-based thresholds or registration requirements. In Ireland, for example, fund administrators are regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland, and AUA is a component of the supervisory framework. In Luxembourg, administrators are supervised by the CSSF. AUA figures appear in regulatory disclosures, industry surveys (Preqin, Citco, SS&C annual administrator surveys), and prospective client due diligence questionnaires.

Worked example

Mountview Fund Services is a specialist private markets administrator with GBP 22B in AUA across 43 manager relationships and approximately 180 fund entities. Its largest client, an institutional PE manager, accounts for GBP 6.5B of AUA across eight PE funds. Its second-largest client, a private credit manager, accounts for GBP 4.2B across twelve credit vehicles (including four SMAs).

When a new PE manager approaches Mountview and asks to onboard a EUR 750M first fund, Mountview assesses its operational capacity relative to current AUA and expected AUA growth. The new mandate would increase Mountview's AUA by approximately 4.5% (assuming the fund deploys fully over three years). Mountview prices the engagement on a tiered fee structure: a base administration fee plus a percentage of NAV above a minimum, declining as AUA grows (reflecting scale economies). The client's reference to Mountview's GBP 22B AUA in manager due diligence demonstrates institutional scale sufficient to service a EUR 750M fund.

Frequently asked questions

Is AUA growing or shrinking in the fund administration industry? Global fund administration AUA has grown significantly over the past decade, driven by the expansion of private markets allocations by institutional investors, the increasing outsourcing of administration functions by GPs who previously managed these in-house, and the regulatory complexity (AIFMD, ELTIF, AEOI) that has made specialist external administrators more cost-effective than internal build. Industry estimates consistently show double-digit annual AUA growth across the major private markets administrators.

What does AUA tell an LP about the quality of their fund's administrator? AUA indicates scale but not quality. LPs conducting operational due diligence on a fund administrator look beyond AUA to: technology infrastructure (whether the administrator uses modern, integrated platforms or legacy spreadsheet-based processes); client retention rates; error and reconciliation track records; regulatory examination history; and the quality of LP reporting. A large AUA figure can coexist with operational deficiencies if growth has outpaced investment in systems and processes.

Can AUA decline? Yes. AUA declines when administrator clients terminate relationships and move to competitors, when fund portfolios realise assets and return capital without new funds replacing them, or when market conditions reduce fair values. For credit-focused administrators, credit losses on fund portfolios reduce AUA even without client departures. AUA concentration risk (heavy dependence on a small number of large clients) is a material concern for smaller administrators.

How is AUA used in administrator due diligence by GPs? GPs evaluating potential fund administrators review AUA as a size indicator, but typically weight it alongside strategy-specific experience (does the administrator have experience with the relevant fund structure, jurisdiction, and asset class?), references from existing clients, technology demonstrations, and service-level agreement terms. GPs in specialist strategies (private credit, infrastructure, real assets) often prefer administrators with AUA concentrated in their specific asset class rather than generalist administrators with large but diversified AUA.

Related terms

AUM, NAV, Transfer agency, Golden copy / ABOR, Straight-through processing

Related pages

Choosing a fund administrator: what GPs need to evaluate, Swelv for fund administrators