Writing
On running the fund.
Writing on fund operations, LP relationships, and the tools that support them.
Sections
- Architecture15How the pieces fit — what the documents obligate, and where the resulting records end up.
- Control11What a fund can demonstrate when someone outside it asks for proof.
- Execution8The work itself: closes, administrator transitions, and the tooling decisions around them.
- Failure Modes12Where fund operations break, and why the break tends to surface long after its cause.
Showing 1–12 of 46 pieces
Architecture
July 22, 2026
The Format Got Standardized. The Answer Never Did.
ILPA standardized what allocators ask. Firm-level answers still live inside individual questionnaires, so each new DDQ starts from scratch.
5 min readArchitecture
July 15, 2026
Two Model Agreements, One Clause Apart.
ILPA’s deal-by-deal and whole-of-fund model agreements run identical for sixteen articles. The entire structural difference sits inside one clause of Article 14.
5 min readControl
July 8, 2026
What Does It Take to Change Who Runs the Fund?
The model’s transfer article ends with three sentences aimed at the manager rather than the investor, and it counts a sell-down of carried interest as a change of control.
5 min readArchitecture
July 1, 2026
Admitted on One Date, Counted From Another.
A subsequent closing happens when it happens, and is calculated as though it happened at the initial close. Both dates are real, and the fund's books have to carry them at once.
5 min readArchitecture
June 24, 2026
When a Regulatory Concern Arises, Who Has to Prove It?
Related regulatory concerns reach ILPA's model agreement through separate provisions. Which one is invoked decides whether an opinion is required, who must produce it, what it has to establish, and whose standard it answers to.
7 min readControl
June 17, 2026
The Transfer Conditions the Seller Cannot Answer
ILPA's model agreement prohibits transfers by default, and the standard that consent not be unreasonably withheld attaches only once the buyer is an affiliate of the seller or five criteria are met. Three of those criteria reach past the seller's own file.
7 min readExecution
June 4, 2026
The Last Distribution Is the Only One That Can Include Private Assets.
Before the final distribution, the model agreement permits only cash or Marketable Securities. At that boundary the restriction lifts, and private assets are treated as sold at a value the general partner determines.
6 min readArchitecture
May 28, 2026
Three Carve-Outs Name a Right. One Names a Circumstance.
Whether a negotiated term reaches the rest of a fund's investors turns, in one of the four exceptions, on why it was granted and to whom it applies — facts Section 20.6.2 does not separately require the notice to identify.
6 min readFailure Modes
May 15, 2026
The Status Quo Option Is a Defined Term.
ILPA defines "status quo" through four numbered economic protections. Everything else depends on the original drafting, or has to be addressed again in the continuation vehicle's documents.
6 min readControl
May 8, 2026
Which Facts Change an Investor's Rights?
A diligence questionnaire maps continuity risk. The partnership agreement defines the narrower events that automatically change the parties' rights.
6 min readExecution
April 25, 2026
The Call Names the Investor. The Wire Names the Account.
A capital call notice is specified down to the numbered field. ILPA's templates stop short of confirming that a particular investor's payment arrived.
6 min readArchitecture
April 18, 2026
The SEC Asked Madoff to Verify Madoff.
A fund's reported figures are only as checkable as the independent evidence behind them. In 1992 the SEC had that evidence one request away, and asked Madoff for a copy instead.
6 min read