ClearGlass is an independent data analytics company that helps Institutional Asset Owners and their Advisors to assess the Value for Money delivered by Asset Managers.
The UK's Cost Transparency Initiative (CTI) and the Republic of Ireland's Cost Transparency Standard (CTS) are data collection frameworks supported by ClearGlass that provide institutional asset owners and their advisors with cost and performance benchmarking reports that enable them to assess the Value for Money (VfM) delivered by asset managers. It enables asset managers to understand whether they are delivering competitive outcomes and value for money for clients.
ClearGlass has supported over 850 asset owners in the United Kingdom with assets under management (AuM) in excess of £1.3 trillion, providing cost collection and benchmarking analytics in 46 investment strategies. This is now being introduced across the EMEA region starting in the Republic of Ireland, Iceland and South Africa with plans to expand throughout EMEA.
In addition, ClearGlass has worked with over 530 asset managers to obtain and verify CTI data on behalf of their clients. ClearGlass provides Market Positioning Reports to asset managers which enables them to understand their competitive position in an investment strategy and to determine optimal market positioning and pricing.
Cost Transparency for Asset Owners
Value for Money Reporting
ClearGlass is able to benchmark a scheme’s costs and its performance, evaluating whether the managers that a scheme works with are delivering good Value for Money (VfM).
VfM Reports are generated mandate by mandate to create a simple, single sheet report that gives a scheme an indication of where the manager sits in relation to the portfolios of other managers within ClearGlass’s benchmarking universe.
These reports are compliant with the Value Assessment and Consumer Duty regulations in the United Kingdom, as well as the IORP II Directive Critical Review in the European Union.
Detailed Benchmarking
Detailed benchmarking looks at all costs in a portfolio and benchmarks them to give asset owners a comparative view of their investments against the market. This shows where the outcomes are strong and where there are opportunities.
It is based on investment strategy, the portfolio size, and whether the portfolio is a pooled or segregated mandate. Close attention is paid to all of these factors to ensure like-for-like comparisons.
Benchmarking is available for 46 strategies across public markets, private markets and LDI portfolios.
In addition to bespoke benchmarks, ClearGlass can also produce generic benchmarking reports that can help with RFP and pricing discussions by showing which managers provide the best VfM for that strategy and scale of the fund.
Data Collection & Cost Reporting
The CTI and CTS collection frameworks, supported by ClearGlass, ensure asset owners are able to obtain and compare all of the fees they incur for every portfolio they hold.
ClearGlass collects CTI and CTS templates from asset managers employed by the asset owner. The data is then cleaned, checked and verified by the ClearGlass internal QC team before being reported to the asset owner.
ClearGlass can provide insights on trends or areas that require further investigation as soon as the data is collected, as well as a summary report at the end of the collection.
In addition, the ClearPass standard is a framework that measures the quality, speed and transparency of data delivered by asset managers to their asset owner clients through the ClearGlass platform and is delivered as part of the Cost Transparency Report.
