Independent Mark Review
“Who reviews your marks?” is now a standard operational due diligence question, and “the deal team stands behind them” is not an answer an LPAC accepts twice. We provide quarterly sample-and-exception testing of private credit marks with an independent range per position and a report written for your auditor, your LP advisory committee, and the DDQs already in your inbox.
Who calls us
The situations
- Emerging managers mid-fundraise where a named independent reviewer is the cheapest credibility available
- Established funds whose auditor or LPAC has started asking harder questions
- Managers with PIK-heavy or amendment-heavy positions where the mark and the reality drift apart quietly
- Family offices, trustees, and boards holding private credit whose marks they cannot test themselves
- Banks carrying loans at fair value: an acquired portfolio, loans held for sale, or a fair-value question from the auditor
What you receive
The deliverable
Quarterly: auditor-ready workpapers, an LPAC summary written to be forwarded, exception flags with reasoning, and DDQ-quotable language on your valuation governance. Priced as a governance line item.
Sample, test, report, escalate
Sample
Risk-weighted position selection each quarter: stressed names always in scope.
Test
Independent range per sampled position; exception flags with reasoning, not just scores.
Report
Auditor-ready workpapers, an LPAC summary, and DDQ-quotable language.
Escalate
When a mark review surfaces a credit problem, the risk and financial leadership practices are behind the finding. **Why it is the recurring first engagement** Priced as a governance line item, below the level that needs a committee memo. It starts the relationship in peacetime, puts us inside the portfolio information, and means that if a credit ever stresses, the advisor already knows the book.
Common questions
Straight answers
Does this replace our auditor or valuation agent?
No, it strengthens your position with both. We test marks independently; we do not produce the primary marks or the audit opinion.
What does the LPAC actually receive?
A quarterly summary: sample coverage, range results, exceptions and resolutions, written to be forwarded, not decoded.
We use a big-name valuation firm annually. Why quarterly review?
Annual point-in-time work misses the quarter where the drift happens. Amendment-heavy books move fast, and stress often resolves by amendment months before any formal trigger.
An answer for the ODD questionnaire
A named independent reviewer, quarterly, priced as a governance line item.