As mutual fund governance continues to evolve, selecting the right trustees is more important than ever. With over two decades of experience collaborating with well-regarded fund boards, we have identified some trends to consider when choosing your next trustee.
- Financial, Risk, and Regulatory Oversight – Trustees face increased regulatory demands for transparency and accountability. They must be aware of new compliance standards and proactively address risks related to issues such as liquidity and derivatives exposures. Qualified financial experts remain in high demand to bolster fund boards’ knowledge and understanding of complex financial statements and reporting requirements, as well as provide leadership potential for audit committees.
- Demand for Specialized Expertise – Today’s trustees require skills beyond traditional oversight. Investment products on fund platforms continue to grow in variety and complexity. To respond, boards need to add the right mix of trustees who bring functional expertise to the discussion in the boardroom. Areas of specialized skills and talents may include investments (both traditional and alternative); operational oversight; and knowledge of products and distribution platforms. These industry experts also help boards envision and prepare for “what’s coming around the corner.”
- Technological Knowledge – The use of technology is growing in all aspects of the fund industry—such as in the areas of investment process, financial and/or operational audits, and customer interface applications. Trustees must understand how technology is being utilized and assess its effectiveness. Oversight of service providers is also critical to consider any possible risks to delivery of services (such as a cyber-attack or leak of sensitive personal data). Boards have recruited technology expertise to keep up with these trends.
- Fiduciary Responsibility and Accountability – Shareholders are now more engaged and vocal about their preferences and expectations. For mutual fund boards, trustees must understand the mindset of and role as a fiduciary advocating on behalf of those shareholders. This includes the responsibility to ensure clarity and transparency regarding fund strategies and performance.
Trustee Search Tips
Recruiting mutual fund trustees has become highly competitive and great talent moves quickly! Based upon the most successful processes and outcomes we have witnessed, here are some recommendations for your next search:
- Start Yesterday – Effective boards recruit before an upcoming retirement. By developing a candidate pipeline well in advance of departures, boards are better able to manage transitions, provide useful overlap of trustees, and ensure effective on-boarding activities.
- Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail – Aim to recruit trustees with leadership potential. Avoiding succession planning may lead to future issues in board leadership.
- Add What You Need; Not What You Lost – With retirements, focus on current board needs and goals while recruiting new trustees. Open seats afford boards the chance to enhance skills and refresh in a non-disruptive fashion. Take advantage of that opportunity.
- Conflict Free – As always, and as soon as possible, it is critical to carefully select and ensure that potential trustees are truly independent and free from any conflict of interest.
- Diversity Matters: Prioritize Talent Over Title – Successful boards have a true mix of talents and abilities. They benefit greatly from the recruitment of a broad array of C-suite and senior leadership professionals with a variety of functional backgrounds and skills. Boards continue to work to capture diversity of thought and experiences to achieve a goal of building a more inclusive and representative culture.
The right trustees can future proof a board and strengthen its foundation. We are here to help you navigate these trends and recruit trustees who will add lasting value.
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Brett Stephens is the CEO of RSR Partners and helps lead the firm’s Board & CEO Services. Maryann Bovich is Co-Head of the firm’s Asset Management practice and Head of the Mutual Fund Trustee practice.
RSR Partners is a boutique professional services firm headquartered in Greenwich, CT, that specializes in helping Boards and CEOs with their most critical recruiting, selection, and succession needs. The firm was founded in 1993 by industry icon Russell S. Reynolds, Jr. In 2017, the firm expanded its capabilities in Asset Management through the addition of Higdon Partners. Over the past 30 years, the firm has conducted thousands of projects for Boards and CEOs at public, private equity owned, and family-owned businesses across a range of industries including asset management, consumer markets and enterprises, financial services, healthcare, industrial, marketing and digital, and technology. To learn more about RSR Partners, click here.
Dear Clients and Friends,
2023 was a dynamic and transformative year across the corporate landscape, and so far, we expect this trend to continue in 2024. Leadership in the boardroom and C-Suite has never been more indispensable. From our beginnings as a boutique board advisory firm, to our evolution into a “boardroom-centric” search firm, we are incredibly proud to work with so many companies that believe that great leadership is a competitive advantage, and with candidates who have a genuine and positive impact on the world around them.
One of the ways we celebrate great leadership is with the Russell S. Reynolds, Jr. Chair of the Year Award. The Chair of the Year Award was established in 2023 to celebrate the legacy of Russ Reynolds, an icon of the executive search and board recruiting industry. The award recognizes a Chair who successfully led a Board of Directors through significant business or governance challenges. As featured in Fortune magazine, the inaugural award was presented to Sarah Nash, Chair of Bath & Body Works, at our annual Directors Dinner in New York in October. We were delighted to recognize Sarah’s extraordinary leadership and character. We hope that many of you will nominate a Chair for the award this year and join us at our Directors Dinner in October.
Our Board practice continues to anchor the firm’s activities and provide enhanced insights and connectivity to assist our executive searches across our core practice areas (Asset Management, Consumer, and Industrial Technology). Our collaborative approach – a hallmark of our firm – helped bring to light some of the trends we expect to be explored by boards and C-Suite leadership teams in 2024:
- Alignment of culture, a learning mindset, and diversity of opinions are now more important than ever on boards and C-Suite teams. The world has changed and what worked in the past will not work in the future. It is therefore critical to perform a robust and comprehensive competencies gap analysis at the board level and across key functional leaders. Does the board and the company foster an environment of intellectual curiosity, and an open and constructive dialogue without limiting different viewpoints or alienating members? Having the right culture is the foundational element for high performance.
- Risk governance requires board and executive leaders to focus not only on current and urgent risks, but to also more carefully consider low probability or unknown risks that may have enormous impact on the business. There have been many “black swan” events emerging, and as a result, creative scenario planning is required. Our recent thought piece, The Chief Supply Chain Officer Imperative: Anticipate and Plan for Disruption, discusses the need to develop operational resilience. It also might be worth establishing a committee or an advisory committee to focus on geopolitical risks.
- Don’t be left behind on AI. The NACD recently reported on the acceleration of science, technology, and/or innovation committees formed at the board level, noting that 67 Fortune 500 companies now have one or more of these committees. Does your board and leadership team have the skillset to understand generative AI, emerging/disruptive technologies, and cyber risk? Or do you need to recruit the right talent to help meet these challenges?
- The Universal Proxy Card will now be used in proxy contests to target the performance of individual directors. Activism is also expected to increase in 2024. It is important to establish action plans and accountability. Evaluations can help boards plan for succession and recruit to fill gaps in skills and experience.
- A new risk has emerged – 74% of executives surveyed by Mercer (Global Talent Trends report) stated that the majority of their workforce cannot adapt to the new world of work. People are key to competitive advantage and value creation – it is critical to know in what environments employees are productive and feel appreciated. Human capital management can play a critical role at an organization, especially in light of the new SEC disclosure rules coming in 2024.
- Lastly, board and leadership burnout is real. Time demands and pressure on directors and corporate leaders have increased substantially. Our recent thought piece, The Divergent Voice: A CEO Formula for the Current Fog of Business, discusses the complexities of being a business leader in today’s environment.
We look forward to continuing to assist our clients with their most important, complex, and sensitive leadership and governance concerns in 2024. We believe that RSR Partners is uniquely situated in the industry to provide unparalleled access and insight into top-performing business leaders. In addition to our board recruiting capabilities, we offer our clients a broad set of other Board and CEO services. Should you have any important board or C-Suite leadership needs in the coming year, we would be delighted to share our capabilities and expertise to help you. More importantly, we look forward to our continued friendship with you all.
With gratitude,
Barrett J. Stephens
Chief Executive Officer
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