Does the management company arrange our reserve study?

Usually they coordinate it and an independent reserve specialist performs it. Whether the coordination is included in your fee or billed separately varies, and the study itself is always a separate professional cost.

What coordination should mean: recommending qualified providers, giving the specialist access to the property and the financial history, reviewing the draft for factual errors, presenting the findings to the Board, and — the part most often skipped — actually integrating the funding recommendation into the next budget.

Ask who the provider is and what their relationship to the Management Company is. An affiliated or referral-fee arrangement is not automatically wrong, but you want it disclosed, and you want the study to be an independent professional opinion rather than an internal product.

State requirements vary widely and have been tightening. Several states now mandate studies on a set cycle, and Florida's structural integrity reserve study requirements for certain buildings changed the picture substantially after 2021. Ask any prospective company what applies to your specific building type and jurisdiction, and how they track the deadline. A firm that cannot answer that for your state is not tracking your statutory calendar either.