In 2025, the answer is clearer than ever. 

When we first asked this question in 2021, the idea of outsourcing client reporting still raised eyebrows. Asset managers worried about losing control of their most client-facing process. Reports were seen as too critical, too bespoke, and too risky to entrust to anyone else. 

Fast forward to today, and the conversation has shifted completely. The firms that once hesitated are now discovering that outsourcing is not losing control at all, it’s gaining control in every way that matters. 

From fear to flexibility 

In 2021, many asset managers were still clinging to legacy in-house systems, manual checks, and spreadsheets. They feared that giving the job to an external partner meant surrendering oversight or diminishing the personal nature of their reporting. 

That fear has largely faded. The reality is that outsourcing, when done with the right partner, gives firms greater transparency, consistency, and agility than most internal teams can sustain on their own. 

The best vendors now operate as genuine extensions of their clients’ reporting teams. They provide visibility through live dashboards, automated workflows, and approval trails that show exactly what stage every report is at, and why. Clients no longer “let go”; they simply stop holding on so tightly to the wrong things. 

The business case has strengthened 

In the years since our original article, the volume and complexity of client reporting have exploded. Customised ESG disclosures and SFDR obligations, hybrid investor formats, and rapid onboarding demands have stretched internal reporting teams beyond their limits. 

At the same time, the tools available to outsourced specialists have evolved dramatically. Factbook’s own Reporting-as-a-Service model, for example, integrates directly with fund administrators, market-data vendors, and accounting systems to pull verified data from source. Reports that once took 20 days to finalise are now delivered within five. 

Outsourcing no longer means slower or less personal, it means faster, cleaner, and more accurate, with every stage still visible to the asset manager. 

Outsourcing as a competitive advantage 

Many of today’s most forward-thinking asset managers are no longer asking “Should we outsource?” but “How much should we outsource?”. 

Hybrid models are becoming the norm. Standardised or recurring reports are handled externally at scale, while highly customised outputs remain in-house. This frees teams to focus on higher-value activities: client engagement, commentary, and analysis, the parts of reporting that truly require human judgment. 

Clients such as Lloyds Banking Group, ABSA, and Merian Global Investors, who have all adopted automated or outsourced reporting workflows, cited agility and turnaround speed as major differentiators in their client experience. When a new mandate or regulation lands, they could respond in days rather than months. In markets where responsiveness is everything, that agility has become a source of competitive edge. 

The regulatory lens 

The last four years have also brought increased scrutiny of how reporting data is produced and governed. Regulators now expect firms to demonstrate clear audit trails, version control, and data lineage, all of which are inherently easier to achieve through structured, automated systems than through fragmented spreadsheets. 

As ESG and sustainability reporting have matured, the ability to ingest multiple data sources in multiple formats has become essential. Outsourced reporting partners are now often better equipped than internal teams to meet these evolving requirements, precisely because this is their area of constant innovation. 

Looking ahead: the next four years 

By 2029, the distinction between “in-house” and “outsourced” reporting may disappear altogether. As automation deepens and data connectivity improves, we can expect to see fully integrated ecosystems, where reports, data, commentary and client-facing portals are generated and approved seamlessly, regardless of who built the system. 

Outsourcing will increasingly be seen as a model of collaborative control: asset managers directing strategy, tone and oversight; vendors managing the infrastructure, process, and speed. 

And as artificial intelligence begins to support narrative generation and data validation, firms that have already embraced outsourced automation will be several steps ahead in adopting these advances safely. 

Reframing control 

Control today is no longer about who presses “publish”. It’s about knowing that the data is right, the design is compliant, the report is consistent, and the client is informed. Outsourcing doesn’t remove control, it refines it, concentrates it, and gives firms the confidence to scale without risk. 

The question from 2021 now has a simple answer: Outsourcing client reporting was never about losing control. It was, and is, about finding better ways to keep it.