Template
Investment Committee Memo Template
A structured IC memo that captures the recommendation and the reasoning behind it, not just the data.
What this template is for
A repeatable IC memo format that an investment committee can read in fifteen minutes and revisit two years later. Built to preserve the judgment behind the recommendation, not just the recommendation itself.
When LP teams use it
- Final IC presentation for a new fund commitment
- Re-up recommendation
- Documented pass recommendation for IC visibility
- Annual portfolio review memo per manager
The template
Header
- Fund name and vintage
- Strategy and target fund size
- Recommended commitment amount
- Recommended status (approve, approve with conditions, defer, pass)
- Lead analyst and reviewing partner
- IC meeting date
Recommendation
- One-paragraph recommendation
- Why now and why this fund
- What changed since the last memo on this manager (if a re-up)
- What would cause us to reverse this recommendation
Portfolio fit
Whether the fund is good is one question. Whether it fits the portfolio is a separate one.
- Role in the portfolio
- Asset class and strategy allocation impact
- Existing exposure to the GP, strategy, sector, or geography
- Commitment pacing impact
- Liquidity considerations
- Concentration or overlap concerns
- Why this commitment size is appropriate
- What would happen if we passed
Strategy and edge
- What is the strategy in two sentences?
- What is the firm's claimed edge and what evidence supports it?
- Where is the strategy crowded?
- What environments would this strategy struggle in?
Team
- Key people, attribution, and alignment
- Departures and what they mean
- Succession and key-person coverage
- Cultural read from references
Track record
- Headline returns by fund (gross and net)
- Distribution of outcomes (loss ratio, top-quartile rate)
- Realization vs. mark
- Benchmark comparison
Terms
- Fees, carry, hurdle, GP commitment
- Side letter asks (MFN, co-invest, fee, reporting)
- Key-person and removal provisions
- Items that deviate from market and our position
Diligence basis
What the recommendation is based on. The audit trail behind the memo.
- Documents reviewed
- Reference calls completed and by whom
- Internal reviewers and specialist input
- External consultant input, if applicable
- Open diligence items at the time of memo
- Materials not reviewed and why
- Key source documents linked
Risks and mitigants
- Top three risks with explicit mitigants
- Open diligence items at the time of memo
- Conditions that would need to be met before close
Dissenting views
- Recorded dissent from any team member with rationale
- Counterarguments considered and not adopted
- What would make a no a yes
Decision and follow-ups
- IC vote and any conditions
- Approved commitment amount vs. recommended amount
- Reasons for any change from recommendation
- Conditions to close
- Who dissented or abstained
- Date decision was finalized
- Follow-up items and owner
- Date for first quarterly review
Common mistakes
- Burying the recommendation behind ten pages of background
- Omitting dissent because the memo author disagreed with it
- Treating risks as a perfunctory section rather than the most important one
- Failing to define what would reverse the recommendation
- Writing for the IC meeting and not for the re-reader two years later
- Skipping portfolio fit because the fund itself looked attractive
How Allocator Desk manages this in a live system
- Generates an IC-ready brief from the live diligence record
- Preserves recommendation, dissent, and signal snapshot at decision time
- Links the final memo back to the diligence notes, reference calls, documents, and open items that produced it
- Surfaces what changed since the last memo on the same manager
- Becomes the searchable, attributable record the firm can revisit