Arrangements referred to as private investment funds are in reality comprised of multiple vehicles, as follows:

• The fund vehicle(s) are the legal entities in which the investors directly participate. Even within a single fund, there may be multiple fund vehicles. These may exist alongside each other as parallel vehicles, or alternatively one vehicle (a feeder) may participate in another (the master). Feeder and parallel vehicles may exist in different jurisdictions and have differing regulatory and/or tax treatment. They are generally established to accommodate the needs of diverse investors whose legal, regulatory or tax status warrants utilising such structures.

• The manager entity will typically be separate from the fund vehicles, with the relationship between the manager entity and the fund vehicle being contractual. It is however possible to have an internally-managed or self-managed fund whereby the corporate director of the fund vehicle is the manager entity. Future articles in this series will discuss the licensing options, establishment and duties of manager entities.