Resources
The industry already knows.
Surveys and research from the industry's own institutions: outdated diligence, fragmented data, and knowledge that walks out the door. Every stat links to its source.
CFA Institute · 2024
Private markets: governance issues rise to the fore
Across 848 surveyed members, the frequency and accuracy of valuation reporting is the #1 private-markets concern; comparability of performance measures is #2.
Data quality
State Street · 2025
Private markets and the data revolution (~500 institutions)
Institutions report waiting up to five or six months for a quarter's data, while back offices still transpose numbers from PDFs into spreadsheets by hand.
Operational drag
Accenture · 2024
It's time to rethink private equity due diligence
83% of PE respondents believe their current due-diligence approach has substantial room for improvement; 90% agree better diligence drives value.
Operational drag
DiligenceVault · 2026
2025-26 Global Manager Survey (780+ firms, 78 countries)
70% of the industry is still tethered to the “digital gravity” of shared drives and Word documents.
Institutional memory
Coller Capital · 2024
Global Private Capital Barometer, 41st edition
63% of LPs say the exit timelines their GPs communicate feel optimistic; 91% support introducing exit committees.
Data quality
S&P Global · 2025
S&P, Cambridge Associates and Mercer form a private-markets data consortium
Three incumbents pooled forces because fragmented data and inconsistent reporting standards are limiting informed investment decisions.
Standardization
ILPA · 2025
Reporting Template v2.0 & new Performance Template
The refreshed industry-standard templates apply to funds still investing in Q1 2026 or commencing operations after January 1, 2026.
Standardization
Mercer · 2025
Bridging the data gap: the core of private market intelligence
Most private-markets data still comes from public sources: often outdated, delayed by two or more quarters, and not fit for real-time decisions.
Data quality
Brown, Gredil & Kaplan (NBER) · 2016
Do private equity funds manipulate reported returns?
Some under-performing managers boost reported returns exactly when fundraising takes place.
Data quality
Jenkinson, Sousa & Stucke · 2013
How fair are the valuations of private equity funds?
Interim valuations are inflated during fundraising, and performance figures reported while fundraising have little power to predict ultimate returns.
Data quality
Ercan, Kaplan & Strebulaev (NBER) · 2025
Interim valuations, predictability, and outcomes in private equity
Stale marks and repeated markdowns predict poor future performance, visible as early as the first year.
Data quality
Phalippou (Oxford Saïd) · 2020
An inconvenient fact: private equity returns & the billionaire factory
PE funds have returned about the same as public equity indices since at least 2006, while collecting an estimated $230B in carry.
Fees
Accelex + FactSet · 2025
Fund administrators struggle with private-markets data
55% of fund administrators call data acquisition and governance their primary operational challenge; large admins run six different core systems.
Operational drag
Allvue Systems · 2026
2026 GP Outlook Survey (102 firms)
44% of portfolio managers identify benchmarking datasets as a top technology need.
Benchmarking
Ocorian · 2026
Private markets fundraising: key trends shaping 2026
56% of 300 senior PE executives rate investor-reporting requirements as extremely challenging.
Operational drag
CFA Institute · 2025
Private markets: transparency will define the next stage
24% of investment professionals see substantial problems in valuation reporting, and the standardized reporting template is only half-adopted.
Standardization
Aztec Group / Private Funds CFO · 2026
Private-markets reporting: how GPs are adapting
72% of GPs believe their LPs value clear, timely and accurate reporting above all, and reporting tops the 2026 outsourcing list.
Operational drag
Cambridge Associates · 2014
A framework for benchmarking private investments
80 to 90% of funds land in at least three different quartiles over their lives; early top-quartile labels mean little.
Benchmarking
Harris & Stucke (SSRN) · 2012
Are too many private equity funds top quartile?
Modest, defensible variations in method (vendor, vintage definition, metric) let as many as half of all funds claim top-quartile status.
Benchmarking
Harris, Jenkinson, Kaplan & Stucke (NBER) · 2020
Has persistence persisted in private equity?
Using only information available at fundraising, buyout funds show little or no performance persistence post-2000; venture capital persistence remains.
Benchmarking
MSCI (Burgiss) · 2024
Inflating returns with subscription lines of credit
For recent buyout and real-estate vintages, the median subscription line inflated reported IRRs by roughly 100 basis points.
Data quality
CEM Benchmarking · 2015
The case for standardized total cost disclosure in private equity
Estimated total direct LP costs for private equity were 3.82%, while reported management fees were only 1.8%.
Fees
Intapp, citing BCG · 2022
The importance of institutional knowledge management in PE
A large fund could see a net impact of $100M annually just from managing its knowledge more effectively. Today it sits in drives, inboxes, and heads.
Institutional memory
Deloitte · 2025
2025 GenAI in M&A survey (1,000 leaders)
86% of organizations have integrated GenAI into M&A workflows; 35% of adopters apply it to due diligence.
AI adoption
Panopto · 2018
Workplace knowledge and productivity report
The average large US business loses $47M a year to inefficient knowledge sharing; 42% of institutional knowledge is unique to the individual.
Institutional memory
