Limited partners
What allocation and conflict questions should an LP ask a solo GP venture fund?
a solo GP venture fund: Ask how the manager allocates opportunities, expenses, and attention among funds, SPVs, personal holdings, and related relationships.
Ask how the manager allocates opportunities, expenses, and attention among funds, SPVs, personal holdings, and related relationships. A broad conflicts policy needs a practical process. Clarify what is disclosed, who decides, and how records are kept.
Start with the decision
Use a fictional competing-allocation scenario to test the policy. Request relevant disclosures and examples where permitted. Have qualified counsel explain legal duties or approval requirements rather than inferring them from informal practice.
The illustrative scenario
This is an educational workbook. The company or fund and all numerical inputs below are fictional. They are not ADIN results, customer claims, market benchmarks, or a forecast.
The fictional fund has one investment partner and outsourced administrative support. Its strategy depends on a narrow sourcing network and sustained founder relationships. The LP is assessing both that edge and the operating dependencies around one person.
Delegating administration does not answer who makes decisions when the GP is unavailable. Distinguish service-provider tasks, investment authority, and continuity arrangements in the documents.
Turn the scenario into an evidence decision
Consider a review of a solo GP venture fund in which a confident explanation arrives before the supporting records. Start with the first question in the table. Write down what an answer would change: the next interview, the experiment's scope, a request for specialist review, or a decision to wait. A question without a consequence can produce a longer document while adding little understanding.
Next, inspect the record named in the table and record its date, owner, permission boundary, and limitations. Request a responsibility map, service-provider scope, backup procedures, key-person terms, and references about follow-through. Do not infer controls simply because a provider's name appears in a deck. If the record contradicts the explanation, preserve both accounts and ask which definition, period, or workflow differs. Do not silently select the version that makes the opportunity look strongest.
Finish with a conditional statement: if the specified evidence supports the claim under these conditions, take the named next step; otherwise investigate the unresolved question. The objective is to understand incentives and process, not to assume every related vehicle creates an unacceptable conflict. A transparent, specific explanation is more useful than a generic statement that interests are aligned. This worked exercise is about the decision process. It does not assert that a fictional company has met a real diligence standard or that a template can authorize an investment.
| Item | Illustration |
|---|---|
| Decision question | Which vehicles compete? |
| Case-specific constraint | Delegating administration does not answer who makes decisions when the GP is unavailable. Distinguish service-provider tasks, investment authority, and continuity arrangements in the documents. |
| Record to inspect | Request a responsibility map, service-provider scope, backup procedures, key-person terms, and references about follow-through. Do not infer controls simply because a provider's name appears in a deck. |
| Comparison to preserve | Compare the planned workload with the partner's actual capacity and the fund's decision cadence. Identify work that has an accountable backup and work that does not. |
| Unresolved case question | Who handles an urgent notice? |
Use this worksheet
Answer the questions with a source, date, owner, and next action. Mark an unknown as unknown. Use public or permissioned information and involve a qualified specialist when a question requires expertise beyond the team’s competence.
- Which vehicles compete?
- Who makes the allocation?
- What policy applies?
- What is disclosed to LPs?
- What record supports the decision?
Questions specific to this scenario
- Who handles an urgent notice?
- Who can make a decision during an absence?
- What responsibilities remain with the GP?
Request a responsibility map, service-provider scope, backup procedures, key-person terms, and references about follow-through. Do not infer controls simply because a provider's name appears in a deck.
A concrete next test
Walk through an absence scenario involving an urgent capital notice and an investment decision. Ask who has information, access, and authority for each task. Document a real backup arrangement instead of assuming the administrator or a friendly adviser can act for the GP.
Interpret the result
The objective is to understand incentives and process, not to assume every related vehicle creates an unacceptable conflict. A transparent, specific explanation is more useful than a generic statement that interests are aligned.
Compare the planned workload with the partner's actual capacity and the fund's decision cadence. Identify work that has an accountable backup and work that does not.
Sources and method
These primary resources provide background for the concepts. The fictional scenario, calculations, and worksheet are ADIN educational examples; the sources do not report or validate those invented results. Reviewed October 11, 2026.