The written review
Each point a committee will challenge, ranked by how much it is likely to weigh, with the evidence an allocator will look for when it does.
Investment Committee Review
We make your mandate defensible. Before any investor sees a raise, our senior team reviews it the way an investment committee will, finds what an allocator will challenge and fixes it, so the raise holds up in diligence.
Who reviews it
The review is led by our senior team, including a former chief investment officer of two US public pension systems.
01
A chief investment officer's reading
David Hunter, our Senior Advisor, was Executive Director and Chief Investment Officer of the North Dakota Retirement and Investment Office and of the US$40 billion Texas Municipal Retirement System. He reads each raise as the investment staff he led would have read it.
02
What allocators are asking now
Shayan Mohammed, our Managing Director, leads our investor coverage across North America, Europe and the Gulf. He brings the questions allocators are putting to managers in current conversations.
03
Before the first meeting
The review is done before outreach begins. A point settled before an allocator reads the raise does not have to be answered in diligence, where it costs the most time and confidence.
David Hunter's roles are from his earlier career and are not transactions of Inaya Advisory.
How the review runs
We read the raise as an allocator's committee will and set out in writing each point it is likely to challenge, then we change the raise until each point has an answer.
The committee's reading
We work through the deck, the track record, the terms and the data room in the order an allocator's staff does when they prepare a fund for their committee.
Each challenge in writing
Every point a committee is likely to raise is written down, with the reason it will be raised and how much it is likely to weigh on the decision.
Changed before outreach
We agree the changes with the manager and make them with the team. We then read the raise again, as a committee would, before it goes to any investor.
What we test
Six areas decide most committee reviews. We test each one the way an allocator's diligence will.
01
Track record presentation
Whether realised and unrealised results are shown apart, whether attribution holds at deal level, and whether every figure reconciles with the data room.
02
Terms
How the hurdle, the general partner commitment, key person provisions and governance compare with what allocators accept for the strategy and the fund size.
03
Fees
Whether the management fee and carried interest are supported by the strategy, the team and the fund size, and where a committee is likely to ask for a change.
04
The team
Who made the results, whether they are still at the firm, how investment decisions are taken and what happens if a key person leaves.
05
The pipeline
Whether the opportunities shown support the fund size and the pace of deployment, and whether they are specific enough for an allocator to check.
06
Data room gaps
What an allocator will ask for and not find, from deal-level data to policies and service provider details, closed before the first diligence call.
When managers come to us
A review is asked for when a raise has to hold up in front of a committee the first time it is read.
01
If you are about to launch a raise, come to us.
We review it before the first investor meeting, while every change can still be made without cost to a relationship.
02
If diligence stops at the same point, come to us.
We identify the point allocators are stopping on and the reason for it, and we change what they are shown before the next diligence process.
03
If an allocator has passed and the reason is unclear, come to us.
We read the raise as that committee did, tell the manager what most likely decided it and what to change before the next one.
What the manager receives
At the end of the review the manager holds a written assessment and a raise that has been changed to answer it.
The changes, made
We work with the team on the track record, the terms, the pipeline and the data room until each point has an answer a committee can check.
A committee rehearsal
Our senior team puts the committee's questions to the manager before any allocator does, and the answers are tested against the materials.
How it differs from Positioning & Materials
Positioning & Materials builds the deck and the documents. Investment Committee Review is the judgment on whether the raise will survive a committee, and on what has to change for it to do so. A manager whose materials were prepared elsewhere can engage us for the review alone.
Positioning & MaterialsBefore a mandate or on its own
The review can open a capital raising mandate, or stand on its own for a manager that runs its own raise and wants an allocator's reading first.
Capital raising mandatesHeld in confidence
What we find in a review stays between us and the manager. Nothing from it is shared with an investor without the manager's agreement.
Further reading
How a committee decides
What an investment committee asks
The six questions behind most committee reviews of a fund manager, from team continuity to operations and reporting.
Read the guide
How we prepare a manager for an investment committee
The fund goes to committee with the allocator's own staff. How we prepare the manager and the materials for that meeting.
Read more
Mandate selection
We choose our mandates. Each raise is reviewed by our senior team before it is accepted and before any investor hears about it.
Read more