Questions to Ask an AIF Manager Before Investing
Understanding the Manager Decision
The right questions for an AIF manager meeting are the ones that require specific, verifiable answers rather than confident generalities. A manager's willingness to answer in detail is itself informative diligence evidence.
Reading Evidence and Attribution
Useful questions include: who specifically sourced and approved each deal in the marketed track record; what percentage of reported returns is realised versus unrealised; how GP commitment is funded and by whom; what the fund's worst-performing investment was and what went wrong; how allocation is decided across multiple funds managed by the same team; and what the actual fee and hurdle structure is, in writing.
Where Manager Diligence Breaks
The common failure is asking only softball questions the manager is prepared to answer fluently, and never asking about the fund's weakest investments or specific attribution details that require the manager to slow down and think.
Making the Selection Decision
Before committing, ask directly and note the quality of the answer, not just its confidence: specific deal-level attribution, the realised-versus-unrealised split, GP commitment funding source, the worst investment and its lessons, and cross-fund allocation policy.
A manager who answers hard questions with specific, verifiable detail is showing real process; one who answers only with confident generalities is showing polish, not substance.
Key takeaways
- Ask questions that require specific, verifiable answers, not confident generalities.
- Always ask about the fund's worst-performing investment and what actually went wrong.
- A manager's willingness to answer in verifiable detail is itself valuable diligence evidence.
- Watch for polish substituting for substance — specificity is what separates the two.
More in Fund Manager Selection and Due Diligence
Continue with the other chapters in this module.
Related questions
What should an investor verify first?
Who specifically sourced and approved each deal in the manager's marketed track record.
Which documents matter most?
Written fee and hurdle-rate terms, confirmed directly rather than described verbally.
What is the main downside to test?
Asking only softball questions the manager is prepared to answer fluently.
How should the final decision be made?
Based on the specificity of answers to hard questions, especially about the fund's worst investment.
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