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Do you want to know which service providers have been hired to support the new private funds launched in the past year or so? After all, some of them may turn into the next billion-dollar hedge, private equity or real estate fund.

So do we. We took a look at the 9AT database to produce something of an update to last year’s version of this endeavor.  

At the same time, we dug into at the overall picture, to try and understand which firms dominated their category – or not. Form ADV asks private fund sponsors to list the auditors, custodians, fund administrators and prime brokers.  

Here is what we found...

Auditors

Last year, EY, Deloitte, PwC, KPMG and BDO were the five most common auditors hired by new funds (based on the aggregate gross asset value (GAV) of the funds). It’s the same story this year, albeit in a different order, and the five firms also provide the top five auditors for all funds (new and existing) at both year-end last year, and on September 1st this year (table 2).

Looking slightly beyond the top five is where it starts to get a little more interesting, however. On the surface, it appears that both RSM and Grant Thornton came very close to dislodging BDO from fifth spot overall – see Table 2b below. The interesting observation is, however, that in the past eight months, BDO has increased its GAV under audit.

Table 1: Top Five Fund Auditors of New Funds Identified from 2025 Form ADV Filings, Jan-Aug, sorted by GAV

Table 2: Top Five Auditors of All Funds Identified from latest Form ADV Filings, as of Aug 31, 2025

Table 2b: Auditors of All Funds Identified from latest Form ADV Filings, as of Aug 31, 2025, Positions Five-Seven

Custodians

There is an interesting observation in the new funds’ cohort of the custodian category, regardless of whether you sort the league table by aggregate GAV or the total number of funds services.

In the former method, Credit Agricole is not only a new entry but indeed it leads the way. Its $388.9bn of funds comes from just 24 advisers and 69 funds, however, as can be seen in Table 4a. If you dig deeper into those funds, the outlier is a $372bn Luxembourg-domiciled hedge fund managed by PGIM, which essentially put Credit Agricole in first position.

Sorting on the number of funds, however, shows Credit Agricole exit the top five altogether, and a new name, First Citizens Bancshares, coming in at number 2 (table 4b).

Overall, Morgan Stanley enters the top five at number five but keep an eye out – every firm in the top five has gained assets since the end of 2024 (table 5). No-one ever got fired for buying IBM, after all.

Table 4a: Top Five Fund Custodians of New Funds Identified from 2025 Form ADV Filings, Jan-Aug, sorted by GAV

Table 4b: Top Five Fund Custodians of New Funds Identified from 2025 Form ADV Filings, Jan-Aug, sorted by Fund Count

Table 5: Top Five Custodians of All Funds Identified from latest Form ADV Filings, as of Aug 31, 2025

Prime Brokers

Same old, same old for the prime broker set. Last year, JP Morgan, Barclays, Citi, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs took the top five slots for new funds, and the quintet do so again this year – albeit in a different order (table 6a).

Sorting by fund count tells a different story, however. Interactive Brokers comes in at number two (table 6b). Its 175 funds account for only $15bn in GAV, indicating a strong presence in the small and emerging manager category.

Citigroup featured in the top five new funds league table both last year and this year, but does not in the overall list – yet. It sits sixth, around $1.2 trillion short of Bank of America.

Table 6a: Top Five Fund Prime Brokers of New Hedge Funds Identified from 2025 Form ADV Filings, Jan-Aug, sorted by GAV

Table 6b: Top Five Fund Prime Brokers of New Hedge Funds Identified from 2025 Form ADV Filings, Jan-Aug, sorted by Fund Count

Table 7: Top Five Prime Brokers of All Hedge Funds Identified from latest Form ADV Filings, as of Aug 31, 2025

Administrators

Are we saving the most interesting category for last? After all, last year, data from the 9AT database showed that the admin category is the one where the firms atop the leaderboard have the smallest market share when compared to their audit, custody and prime broker peers, indicating a much more fractured and competitive market.

We are. In the new funds category, change is afoot. While CITCO and SS&C Technologies top the leaderboard (after coming in fourth and fifth in last year’s new funds table), when sorting by GAV, three new names appear this time: SEI Investments, Apex Group and Hedgeserv.

When sorting by fund count, however, Carta, which began life helping startups manage their cap tables, and has since built a fund administration service, takes the top spot. One to keep an eye on in future updates to this article, apparently.

Still, they have a way to go to break into the top five overall – which Apex has done this year, dislodging Bank of New York Mellon. The top four from last year – SS&C Technologies, Citco, State Street and Northern Trust – remain this year, in that very same order.

Table 8a: Top Five Fund Administrators of New Funds Identified from 2025 Form ADV Filings, Jan-Aug, sorted by GAV

Table 8b: Top Five Fund Administrators of New Funds Identified from 2025 Form ADV Filings, Jan-Aug, sorted by Fund Count

Table 9: Top Five Fund Administrators of All Funds Identified from latest Form ADV Filings, as of Aug 31, 2025

It is well worth noting that these league tables look across all fund categories, lumping together hedge, PE, and VC into one broad brushstroke. Breaking up the data by different parameters- such as fund type, size, domicile, etc.- yields even more interesting findings. Users of our database can use our League Table page to dig even deeper to see rankings within various combinations of parameters. 

We’ll likely revisit these league tables again at some point – while most of the names on these lists will be unsurprising to many, some most certainly will be, and it will be interesting to see how some of the challenger firms fare over the next 12 months and beyond.

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