01 · Diagnose
Find the gaps before an LP does.
The problem
Operations decide it, not performance.
Operational gaps end more emerging manager allocations than weak performance does. Pipelineroad, 2026 The pattern is consistent enough that experienced allocators screen for it before they look closely at anything else.
The leading veto trigger in operational due diligence is thin independent oversight: insufficient segregation of duties around cash controls and valuation. 48% of LPs cite it. PoliBit, 2026
79% of LPs went materially deeper on operational scrutiny over the past year. Altss, 2026 The bar has moved, and it has moved most for firms raising their first or second institutional vehicle.
Scope
What the diagnostic covers.
Six domains, mapped in both directions: to the areas an ILPA questionnaire tests, and to the SOC 2 Trust Services Criteria that govern whether the evidence behind them holds up.
Assessment domains
- ODD-01Governance and segregation of dutiesWhether one person can originate, approve and record the same transaction. In a small firm the honest answer is usually yes, and the fix is a permission model rather than a policy.
- ODD-02Cash controls and authorisationHow a payment gets out of the door, who can release it alone, and whether the bank record is reconciled by someone other than the person who initiated it.
- ODD-03Valuation policy and evidenceWhether a valuation can be reconstructed twelve months later: the inputs used, the method applied, who approved it, and what changed since the prior period.
- ODD-04Compliance programme and calendarWhether obligations live in a dated register with named owners, or in one person’s memory. This is also where AML and KYC procedures are tested.
- ODD-05Cyber, access control and business continuityJoiner-mover-leaver discipline, multi-factor coverage, backup integrity, and whether the disaster recovery plan has ever been run rather than merely written.
- ODD-06LP reporting and DDQ readinessHow long it takes to produce a capital account statement, whether prior DDQ answers are retrievable, and whether reporting is assembled by hand each quarter.
Mapped to ILPA DDQ 2.0
ILPA issued DDQ 2.0 modules in 2026 aimed specifically at emerging managers. ILPA, via Altss, 2026 Each domain lists the questionnaire areas it answers, so a finding can be traced straight to the question it will be asked in.
Mapped to SOC 2 Trust Services Criteria
Each domain also carries its Common Criteria references. The criteria are what make a control demonstrable rather than merely present, which is the distinction diligence turns on.
Deliverables
What you receive.
- A gap register
- Every domain, every finding, stated the way an operational diligence team would state it. Nothing is softened, because the point is to read it before someone else writes it about you.
- A remediation sequence
- Ordered by what would stop a raise first, not by what is easiest to close. Each item names the control it satisfies and the evidence it has to produce.
- An evidence inventory
- What you already hold, where it lives, and what an assessor would accept. Most firms have more evidence than they can find, which is a different problem from not having it.
- A prioritised build recommendation
- What to fix with process, what to fix with a system, and what to buy rather than build. This routinely recommends buying something we do not sell.
Timeline
Two to three weeks
Interviews in the first week, evidence review in the second, and the register delivered and walked through in the third.
Who it is for
Three to forty people
Independent sponsors, emerging managers on a first or second vehicle, and boutique advisory firms facing the same diligence from their own institutional counterparties.
What it costs
{{TODO: CLIENT INPUT}} Diagnostic pricing. A fixed fee or a band, plus what changes it.
Two front doors
The scan is free. The diagnostic is the work.
They are not the same instrument and it would be dishonest to imply otherwise.
Free · 7 minutes
The ODD readiness scan
Twenty questions you answer about yourself. It returns a banded result and a domain-level register, in full, before anything is asked of you. It is an indicative self-assessment. It is not an audit and it cannot see your evidence.
Engaged · 2 to 3 weeks
The readiness assessment
We interview your team, read your documents, test what you actually hold against what you would need to produce, and write the register ourselves. The difference between the two is the difference between what you think you have and what you can show.
Start with the scan.
Seven minutes, twenty questions, and a register of what an LP would find. Results in full before any email is requested.