--- title: "You Can Outsource the Work. You Can't Outsource the Accountability. | Next Matter" description: "Outsourcing fund operations is evaluated on cost and capacity. The real question is whether accountability travels with the work - and it doesn't. When a NAV is wrong or a KYC check fails, the regulator, the LP and the depositary come back to the name on the fund." lang: en json-ld: | [ { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://nextmatter.com/#organization", "name": "Next Matter", "legalName": "Daizy NM Limited", "url": "https://nextmatter.com", "logo": "https://nextmatter.com/__l5e/assets-v1/aab354c2-e169-46fe-8e9b-0e78438471d3/nextmatter-logo.svg", "description": "Next Matter is the orchestration platform for regulated financial operations - purpose-built for asset managers, fund administrators, and wealth and wealthtech firms, not a generic workflow tool - combining AI agents, your existing systems and human approvals with governance and a complete audit trail.", "sameAs": [ "https://www.linkedin.com/company/nextmatter", "https://www.daizy.com" ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://nextmatter.com/#website", "url": "https://nextmatter.com", "name": "Next Matter", "publisher": { "@id": "https://nextmatter.com/#organization" }, "inLanguage": "en" } ] }, { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "Article", "headline": "You Can Outsource the Work. You Can't Outsource the Accountability.", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Jonty Hurwitz", "jobTitle": "Founder" }, "publisher": { "@id": "https://nextmatter.com/#organization" }, "datePublished": "2026-09-07", "mainEntityOfPage": "https://nextmatter.com/opinions/outsource-work-not-accountability", "inLanguage": "en" }, { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://nextmatter.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Opinions", "item": "https://nextmatter.com/opinions" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Outsourcing Accountability", "item": "https://nextmatter.com/opinions/outsource-work-not-accountability" } ] } ] } ] --- [![Next Matter Logo](/__l5e/assets-v1/aab354c2-e169-46fe-8e9b-0e78438471d3/nextmatter-logo.svg)](/) - [Solutions](/solutions) [ grid\_view Solutions Overview Personas, capabilities, and proof ](/solutions)[ smart\_toy AI Orchestration Coordinate agents across your stack ](/solutions/ai-orchestration)[ library\_books Workflow Library Remix production-ready workflows ](/remix) Case Studies [ ![Ocorian](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/69a7f71677d8045f0f2d982a/69a7f71677d8045f0f2da4e8_Ocorian_trustbar.svg) Ocorian 1,800 Employees • Fund Administrator ](/case-studies/ocorian)[ ![Trade Republic](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/69a7f71677d8045f0f2d982a/69a7f71677d8045f0f2da4e9_traderpublic_trustbar.svg) Trade Republic 10M Customers • Online Trading Platform ](/case-studies/trade-republic)[ ![b2Venture](/__l5e/assets-v1/40232f5e-b66d-45f6-8d04-8be40304d172/b2venture-logo.png) b2Venture $800mn AUM • Venture Capital Firm ](/case-studies/b2venture)[ ![Swan](/__l5e/assets-v1/ef4919d4-3042-430f-b1a2-10b7da14c889/swan-logo.webp#lh=1500x401) Swan BaaS leader • Embedded Banking Platform ](/case-studies/swan) - [Platform](/platform) [ hub Platform Overview Built for Fund Operations ](/platform)[ build Workflow Builder Build long-running orchestrations ](/workflow-builder)[ smart\_toy AI & Automation Agents, models and guardrails ](/ai-and-automation)[ extension Integrations Core Ledger & Ecosystem Connectivity ](/integrations)[ verified\_user Governance & Audit Approvals and a full audit trail ](/governance-and-audit)[ shield Security SOC 2, data residency ](/security) - Resources [ forum Ask a Technical Question Chat with the docs AI assistant ](https://help.nextmatter.com/docs/integrate-across-tools?assistant)[ campaign Opinions Perspectives from our team ](/opinions) [Sign in](https://app.nextmatter.com/login) [Apply](/book-a-demo) [Home](/) chevron\_right [Opinions](/opinions) chevron\_right Outsourcing accountability Opinion · Outsourcing fund operations # You can outsource the work. You can't outsource the accountability. Outsourcing decisions in fund administration get made on cost and capacity. The structural fact nobody prices in: when the work fails, the regulator, the LP and the depositary come back to the name on the fund - not to whoever was performing the task that day. volume\_up Listen to this piece [menu\_book Start reading](#article) ![Jonty Hurwitz](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/69a7f71677d8045f0f2d982a/69b9321a07c5323a0c817c07_Jonty.png) Written by Jonty Hurwitz Founder Read time 6 min Published Sep 2026 O utsourcing decisions in fund administration get evaluated the way most vendor decisions do. Is it cheaper than doing it in-house. Does it free up a team that is already stretched. Can the provider absorb our volume at year-end without falling over. What do the service levels commit to, and what happens if they are missed. These are reasonable questions. They are also incomplete ones, and the gap between them and the question that actually matters is where the risk sits. A provider can lose the client. The fund administrator answers for the failure itself. 01 · The usual decision framework ## Cost and capacity are the wrong first questions NAV production, investor servicing, fund accounting, transfer agency: each of these gets put out to a third party at some point, and the business case is almost always built the same way. Cost per unit of work, headcount released, coverage across time zones, an SLA with credits attached to it. None of that is wrong. It is just a commercial frame applied to something that is only partly a commercial decision. The part it does not touch is what happens on the day the process fails, and who has to stand behind it when it does. 02 · Who actually gets the call ## Follow a failure through to the end and the answer is always the same A capital call notice goes out two days late. A KYC file is approved on documentation that should have been escalated. A NAV figure is published with an input that was never reconciled. In each case, walk the consequence forward and see where it lands. The regulator Contacts the regulated entity on the filing. Delegation of an activity is not delegation of responsibility for it, and no supervisor has ever accepted an outsourcing contract as an explanation. The LP Holds the firm whose name is on the notice, the statement and the investor communication. They did not choose your provider and have no relationship with them. The depositary Asks the administrator to evidence the control, the approval and the timeline - and expects that evidence to be produced now, not requested from a third party. The contract and the SLA govern the commercial relationship between two firms. They allocate cost, remedy and, occasionally, blame. What they do not do is change who is accountable to the investor or the regulator. The provider's worst case is losing an account. Yours is a finding, a remediation programme, and an LP who now reads every statement twice. 03 · Why this gets missed ## Diligence asks what the provider will do, not what you will still have to prove Outsourcing conversations are built around the provider's capability. Their process maps, their controls, their certifications, their onboarding plan. Almost none of it is framed around the question that arrives eighteen months later: when someone asks this firm exactly what happened on a specific case, on a specific date, who approved it and on what basis, can this firm answer without asking permission first? If the only record of the work lives inside the provider's own systems, the honest answer is no. The evidence exists, but it belongs to someone else, and it arrives on their timetable, in their format, assembled by people whose incentive at that moment is not identical to yours. That is a firm which has taken on the accountability while handing away the means to discharge it. The test worth running before you sign If a regulator asked this afternoon what happened on one outsourced case last quarter, could you answer from your own records - or would you have to raise a ticket with your provider and wait? 04 · What actually protects you ## Keep the governed record, wherever the work happens The protection is not to stop outsourcing. For plenty of firms it remains the right operational call, and doing the work in-house badly is worse than having it done well elsewhere. The protection is to stop treating the provider's record-keeping as your record-keeping. That means one governed view of the process that sits above the outsourcing relationship rather than inside it: the steps, the approvals, the exceptions and the timestamps held independently of whichever party performed the underlying task. The provider still does the work. The provider's people still complete steps, through a guest interface, against the same process definition your own team uses. But the evidence of what happened, when, and who signed off accrues to you as a natural by-product of the work, not as a report you have to request. This is also what makes the relationship easier to manage in the ordinary case, not just the failure case. Exceptions surface where you can see them rather than in a monthly service review. Turnaround times are measured from your own data. A change of provider becomes a change of who completes a step, not a migration of institutional memory. Proof point · Ocorian, Trade Republic, b2venture and Swan 300+ fund specialists More than 300 fund specialists at Ocorian run global fund and investor operations on Next Matter, with maker-checker approvals and a timestamped record applied by default and held independently of whichever team or third party completes a step. Trade Republic runs bank-grade client operations at consumer scale, b2venture runs venture operations to roughly 800M EUR AUM, and Swan runs embedded-finance operations on the same pattern. [Read the Ocorian case study](/case-studies/ocorian) 05 · The distinction that holds ## One of these transfers. The other never does. Outsourcing the work is a legitimate choice, made every day by serious firms for good reasons. Outsourcing the accountability is not a choice at all, because it is not available. It stays with the name on the fund whatever the contract says, and the only real question is whether the firm holding it kept the means to answer for it. Decide the outsourcing question on cost and capacity if you like. Just do not mistake that for having decided the governance one. For the practical governance detail, see [how to keep governance and audit control when outsourcing or insourcing fund operations](/answers/outsourcing-fund-operations-governance). If you are weighing platforms alongside the provider decision, compare [Next Matter and Caruso](/why-next-matter/next-matter-vs-caruso) and [Next Matter and Juniper Square](/why-next-matter/next-matter-vs-juniper-square). On this piece [01   The usual decision framework](#s1)[02   Who actually gets the call](#s2)[03   Why this gets missed](#s3)[04   What actually protects you](#s4)[05   The distinction that holds](#s5) Share [share ](https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fnextmatter.com%2Fopinions%2Foutsource-work-not-accountability) [alternate\_email ](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fnextmatter.com%2Fopinions%2Foutsource-work-not-accountability&text=You%20can%20outsource%20the%20work.%20You%20can't%20outsource%20the%20accountability.) [mail ](mailto:?subject=You%20can%20outsource%20the%20work.%20You%20can't%20outsource%20the%20accountability.&body=https%3A%2F%2Fnextmatter.com%2Fopinions%2Foutsource-work-not-accountability) Keep reading ## Bring an outsourced process and test the record A NAV cycle, an onboarding case, a capital call run by a third party. We will show you where the evidence sits and who has to approve before anything moves. [Book a demo](/book-a-demo) [More opinions](/opinions) [ Answer Governance when outsourcing fund operations The practical guidance: one orchestrated process, approvals and a single audit trail across every party. ](/answers/outsourcing-fund-operations-governance)[ Platform Governance and audit Maker-checker approvals, role separation and a timestamped audit trail applied by default. ](/governance-and-audit)[ Compare Next Matter vs Juniper Square Where an LP portal ends and governed operational orchestration begins. ](/why-next-matter/next-matter-vs-juniper-square)[ Opinion Governance means more than an audit trail Logging what happened is not the same as governing what is allowed to happen. ](/opinions/governance-means-more-than-an-audit-trail) ![Next Matter](/__l5e/assets-v1/aab354c2-e169-46fe-8e9b-0e78438471d3/nextmatter-logo.svg) [](https://www.linkedin.com/company/nextmatter) Case studies - [Ocorian](/case-studies/ocorian) - [Trade Republic](/case-studies/trade-republic) - [Swan](/case-studies/swan) - [b2Venture](/case-studies/b2venture) - [All case studies](/case-studies) Solutions - [Solutions overview](/solutions) - [AI Orchestration](/solutions/ai-orchestration) - [Workflow library](/remix) Platform - [Platform overview](/platform) - [Workflow Builder](/workflow-builder) - [AI & Automation](/ai-and-automation) - [Integrations](/integrations) - [Governance & Audit](/governance-and-audit) - [Security](/security) - [System status](https://status.nextmatter.com/) Capabilities - [AI Financial Reporting](/ai-financial-reporting) - [Operational Intelligence](/operational-intelligence) - [Exception Handling](/exception-handling) - [Team Interfaces](/team-interfaces) - [Guest Interfaces](/guest-interfaces) - [Manager Dashboard](/manager-dashboard) - [Builder Toolbox](/builder-toolbox) Company - [About](/about) - [Careers](/careers) - [Opinions](/opinions) - [Answers](/answers) - [Documentation](https://help.nextmatter.com/docs/integrate-across-tools) - [Ask a Technical Question](https://help.nextmatter.com/docs/integrate-across-tools?assistant) Certified Secure [![AICPA SOC 2 for Service Organizations](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/69a7f71677d8045f0f2d982a/69a7f71677d8045f0f2da55f_logo_SOC2.svg)](https://app.drata.com/trust/d62cb1a1-96df-4741-8058-97ecbc4ff345/) [![GDPR compliant](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/69a7f71677d8045f0f2d982a/69a7f71677d8045f0f2da561_logo_GDPR.svg)](https://app.drata.com/trust/d62cb1a1-96df-4741-8058-97ecbc4ff345/) [![SOC 2 Type 2 compliant 2025](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/69a7f71677d8045f0f2d982a/69eb389eff4de1586e1d2f14_Daizy%20SOC%202%20Type%202.png)](https://app.drata.com/trust/d62cb1a1-96df-4741-8058-97ecbc4ff345/) © 2026 Daizy NM Ltd. 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