Phoenix American Financial Services Announces New Fund Administration Services For 506(c) / General Solicitation Investment Funds Under The JOBS Act

SAN RAFAEL, Calif., June 24, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Phoenix American Financial Services (PAFS) announced today that the company now offers fund administration services to new investment fund companies operating under SEC rule 506(c). Because the new funds engage in general solicitation for new investors, Phoenix American provides a range of front office services in addition to the company's back office outsourcing offering which includes shareholder record keeping, transfer agent services, tax and accounting services, printing and fulfillment.

As a result of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act, new fund companies operating under SEC rule 506(c) are permitted to engage in general solicitation for new investors. Phoenix American Financial Services now offers all the services necessary to streamline this process and maximize the efficiency of new investor acquisition and processing as well as ongoing shareholder record keeping. These new functions include: call center services to process incoming responses to fund advertising, printing and fulfillment of investment information and sales kits, prospect investor follow-up, investor accreditation services and new investment processing.

The company's first JOBS Act client, an oil exploration fund company, having decided to take advantage of the general solicitation opportunity of rule 506(c), was faced with the many problems of processing hundreds of new investments. The management came to Phoenix American shortly before the launch of their fund. Phoenix provided a customized solution to their operational challenge including: phone team support for responders to sponsor advertising, printing and fulfillment of sales materials, investor accreditation, review and follow up to complete new subscriptions, and entry of all qualified investments in the STAR-XMS transfer agent system. This fund was able to raise nearly $50 million in six months efficiently, at a fraction of the cost of utilizing a broker dealer network and in full compliance with all regulations. The client also benefits from the Accredited Investor module in STAR-XMS which manages investor qualification information for the fund to ease compliance and simplify re-accreditation for their future offerings.

Phoenix American fulfills a novel need to alternative investment funds with its new offering. The advantages to sponsors of offering a fund by general solicitation are the potential for raising money more quickly than by way of a broker dealer network and the subsequent savings in commission payments. However, since the broker dealer network is not involved in these financial offerings, sponsors are now responsible for a substantial amount of work surrounding subscription processing, accreditation, prospect and investor relations. Phoenix American takes on this workload so that sponsors' operations staff may focus on growing the fund.

Investor accreditation in particular involves a host of complexities and document management challenges that are frustrating to sponsor operations but critical to compliance. Phoenix American employs a specialized staff to walk investors through the process. Phoenix also adapted its STAR-XMS transfer agent system to include an Accredited Investor Database especially built to meet all compliance requirements and to simplify re-accreditation of investors for future offerings.

"This is a natural move for us," said Tony Olivo, director of business development for Phoenix American. "We have been serving alternative investment funds for over forty years through many changes in regulations and the economy. Our front office offering for 506(c) funds is a natural extension of the tradition of efficiency, security and value that we bring to our back office outsourcing services."

Phoenix American Financial Services provides back office outsourcing and transfer agent services as well as sales and marketing reporting services to companies in the alternative investment and mutual fund industries. The PAFS aircraft group provides administration and accounting services for securitized funds specializing in commercial aircraft. The company is a subsidiary of Phoenix American Incorporated along with Phoenix American SalesFocus Solutions, providers of the cloud-based MARS CRM, Sales and Marketing reporting and compliance management solutions for banks, insurance companies, asset management firms and other financial service organizations. Phoenix American Incorporated was founded in 1972 and is headquartered in San Rafael, CA. Visit: www.pafsi.com

Contact:
Tony Olivo, Director of Business Development, Phoenix American Financial Services
415-223-1710

SOURCE Phoenix American Financial Services