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Intense LP scrutiny of GP back-office operations is now an established fact of life for the private fund CFO. Prompted by extended fundraising timelines, rising levels of LP sophistication and the requirement to comply with a raft of regulatory obligations, LPs – and particularly those new to the asset class – are asking CFOs for higher volumes of information and data at a more granular level of detail.
Of respondents to the Private Funds CFO Insights Survey 2026, conducted in partnership with Aztec Group, almost half reported that LP scrutiny of back-office operating models has increased over the past three years. Of these, 13 percent noted the rise was significant.
One CFO notes that the firm’s quarterly reports include tens of thousands of data points. Another says that its LPs are asking “better questions and are increasingly inquisitive about data sets.” That manager’s response is to rethink its internal staffing.
Due diligence questionnaires presented by LPs during fundraising are increasingly detailed, say CFOs, and notably from new accounts. Topping the list of DDQ questions, investors are looking for specific information on cybersecurity, valuations and compliance, according to survey responses.
Overall, by far, GPs receive the most requests from LPs regarding fund performance and benchmarking, followed some way behind by fee and expenses transparency.
When asked what aspect of the investor experience LPs value the most, respondents said clear, timely and accurate reporting takes first place, closely followed by responsive, high-touch investor relations.
‘Slice and dice’
To answer the expanding range of requests for information, GPs need access to high-quality data. As the industry globalizes, to service an increasingly diverse and numerous investor pool from a variety of jurisdictions and asset types, managers need to standardize their data ready to “slice and dice” into a structured format that suits each investor, says Aztec Group’s global head of investor services, Maria von Oldenskiöld.
Providing transparency is a balancing act between giving each investor exactly what they need and leveraging a common template formatted by the firm, says Christina Houghton, CFO at private credit firm Balbec Capital. To do that, CFOs need to be prepared. “You must have your house in order so that you can respond to requests in a reasonable amount of time,” she says.
Access to standardized data provides “a single source of truth from which you can automate reports that address the vast majority of requests,” Houghton says. That leaves a minority of requests to address manually.
She adds: “Investors are ultimately interested in understanding what’s driving performance and how managers are managing the fund. I think that as long as you can communicate that at an appropriate level of granularity, investors are typically happy.”
Jason Donner, CFO at Veritas Capital, says: “Our philosophy is, if an investor asks for something, we’re going to provide it, unless there’s a regulatory reason not to.”
However, while the firm is ILPA compliant and has sought to standardize its reporting, “every investor wants something a little different, which you need to allocate time for. To avoid doing this manually, we’ve begun to automate some of the process.”
For quarterly reporting, the firm’s data warehouse can populate a template ready for the team to review. When fundraising, “we used some advanced [software] products to help provide information to investors quickly,” Donner says.
At Thoma Bravo, CFO Amy Coleman Redenbaugh notes that one reason the firm receives a higher volume of information requests is simply because it has more LPs. Many of those requests are headline-driven and it’s imperative to respond promptly, she notes.
“A CFO’s first line of defense is to have a robust reporting package that’s delivered in a timely manner, if not accelerated,” she says. “If you don’t have technology in place and have the data readily accessible, you’re going to get buried in those requests. We try to stay ahead of the curve.”
It’s a message most CFOs seem to have already taken on board.
