Why Staff Retention is Critical to Cayman’s Fund Administration Proposition

The war for talent and staff turnover continue to be major challenges for the Cayman fund administration sector. Figures from the 2025 US Mercer Turnover Survey show that the average annual rate of voluntary turnover for US firms is 13%.

Key Challenges in Cayman Fund Administration

The cross-border funds landscape is not immune to this. High calibre and experienced staff are a key element of the Cayman Islands’ fund administration proposition and a considerable factor in attracting high-quality business to the jurisdiction.

In this context, JTC’s above-benchmark staff retention rate of 96%* is significant. It’s an important differentiator in the Cayman fund services market and one of the reasons why we continue to be selected as a trusted outsourcing partner to fund managers.

The Impact of Staff Turnover on Fund Administration

High turnover and poor retention of fund administration professionals can have a major impact on a fund manager’s business, in a number of ways.

• Continuity issues: Gaps in continuity can cause delays or errors in processing information and delivering it to clients, regulators and other stakeholders.
• Attrition of knowledge: Valuable institutional knowledge about a manager’s operations, processes and preferences can be lost when long-standing staff members leave.
• Reduced efficiency: Even new employees with strong experience from elsewhere take time to get up to speed and reach full productivity.
• Lower trust and confidence: Client loyalty to a firm is often tied to their relationship with specific members of staff, which takes time to rebuild.
• Reputation: Any combination of the above factors may lead to negative word-of-mouth that could damage your business.

It is clear that these issues are compounded in highly skilled industries and subsectors, where it can take years for a person to gain the necessary experience to perform their role efficiently and accurately.

In a cross-border funds environment where speed-to-market and accuracy of reporting are critical in supporting the ambitions of global fund managers, not being able to meet those expectations can be a serious problem.

Cayman’s Strengths in Fund Administration

Within the context of the Cayman Islands, there are further reasons for staff retention being an increasingly important component of its fund administration proposition.

Rising supervisory scrutiny and regulatory enforcement in Cayman in relation to regulatory requirements and international AML and KYC frameworks requires a deep understanding of the environment and manager expectations that only strong relationships can deliver.

Manager feedback also consistently shows that operational quality, a robust control environment, and error avoidance now outweigh pure cost considerations. This sort of operational resilience, delivered through high staff retention, is now considered a capital-raising enabler, not just a service function.

In addition, one of Cayman’s key strengths is its easy access to local expertise, through established relationships with legal, audit and regulatory stakeholders. Again, this is achieved through maintaining robust, stable teams on-the-ground, that invest in strong and trusting relationships with local stakeholders.

In a world of complexity, operational due diligence has become a gating factor for cross-border capital flows, putting staff retention at the heart of Cayman’s fund administration proposition – and this will only become more important in the coming years.

High-touch Service and Experienced Teams

It is against this backdrop that staff retention has become an important KPI for JTC, where our aim is to deliver a high-touch service to clients, acting as an extension to a manager’s team.

JTC is very proud of its extremely low staff turnover rate, currently standing at 4%. The firm also boasts impressive long-service statistics – the team of over 20 fund services professionals located in the Cayman Islands have an average service history of 13 years.

Partnering with JTC therefore gives fund managers access to a highly motivated, experienced and reliable team of professionals, providing stable and effective support. In a highly competitive market, this efficiency is an increasingly important cornerstone of a successful fund operation.

To discuss JTC’s fund administration services in the Cayman Islands please contact our local team, Bruce Smith or Nicole Eggleton, directly.

Bruce Smith             Nicole Eggleton

*JTC Annual Report 2024.