According to a global survey released by SEI, in collaboration with Greenwich Associates, 59% of managers said they have increased transparency in order to retain or attract new capital.
Meanwhile, more than a third said they had lowered management fees since 2008 to make their products more attractive to investors.
Philip Masterson, head of business development, Europe, for SEI, said: "Investor expectations are much different since the financial crisis, and fulfilling those expectations will be the difference between winning and losing in the ‘era of the investor’.
"Managers are investing in reporting and client service, but in some cases it is not enough for a sceptical investor base."
Many private equity funds do not have regular reporting schedules in the way other funds do because of a lack of liquidity in their underlying assets.
SEI’s survey of more than 400 institutional investors, consultants and fund managers showed that aside from performance, getting investors to be comfortable with infrastructure was the greatest challenge managers faced.
Over 22% of managers said this was the case, while 18% said providing satisfactory performance attribution data was their greatest challenge.
Due to this pressure, just over half said they had made investments in client reporting procedures over the past 18 months, or plan to do so in the next 18 months.
Finally, the survey revealed a disparity between what investors and fund managers deem to be the main reason for investors steering clear of the sector.
Half of managers polled listed investor fear and reluctance as the biggest obstacle, while investors themselves pointed to poor liquidity and risk concerns as the main factor turning them off.
This was followed by concerns surrounding poor performance and high fees and lastly by their fear and reluctance to allocate more to private equity.
