Key Takeaways
- • Dakota argues that private fund performance reporting (net IRR, TVPI, DPI) tells users what happened but not whether a fund performed well relative to comparable investments.
- • Per the article, family offices held 21% of portfolios in private equity in 2024 (UBS Global Family Office Report 2025), and nearly half of RIAs allocate 10% or more of AUM to private markets (KKR, 2025 RIA Survey).
- • Peer benchmarking by strategy, vintage, sector and methodology allows platforms to show whether a fund is ahead of or behind its peers, including quartile or percentile rank.
- • Dakota's private fund benchmarking data covers 18,000+ private funds and can be integrated into family office and RIA software via API, embedded Peer Group Builder, white-label module or dataset license.
Summary
A Dakota Marketplace article contends that wealth management and family office software can report a private fund's IRR to two decimal places but typically cannot show whether that figure is competitive. The piece cites UBS's Global Family Office Report 2025, which found family offices held 21% of their portfolios in private equity in 2024, and the KKR 2025 RIA Survey, which found nearly half of RIAs allocate 10% or more of AUM to private markets.
The article distinguishes reporting from intelligence. Net IRR, TVPI and DPI each answer a narrow question and leave open whether performance is strong relative to comparable funds. Using an illustrative example, it notes that a 2021 vintage fund with an 18% net IRR and 0.3x DPI may look stronger on IRR than a 2017 vintage fund with a 14% IRR, 1.9x TVPI and 1.2x DPI, yet the comparison is distorted by differences in vintage and maturity.
The article argues that private markets require benchmarks segmented by strategy, vintage, sector and methodology, since peer group rules, sample sizes and measurement dates all affect results. As a hypothetical illustration, it compares a 2020 vintage buyout fund with a 15.2% net IRR and 1.8x TVPI against an assumed peer median of 12.5% IRR and 1.6x TVPI, which would place the fund 2.7 percentage points ahead on IRR. The article states these benchmark figures are hypothetical and not actual Dakota data.
The article outlines five ways benchmarking could change wealth management software, including turning reports into decision tools, flagging underperforming funds earlier, and improving manager due diligence. It also notes that most software providers do not collect private fund return data, and that Dakota's dataset of 18,000+ funds, covering net IRR, TVPI, DPI, RVPI and PME, can be integrated through several partnership models. The piece is promotional in nature, as it is published on Dakota's own site and closes with calls to book a demo and contact its partnerships team.
The article distinguishes reporting from intelligence. Net IRR, TVPI and DPI each answer a narrow question and leave open whether performance is strong relative to comparable funds. Using an illustrative example, it notes that a 2021 vintage fund with an 18% net IRR and 0.3x DPI may look stronger on IRR than a 2017 vintage fund with a 14% IRR, 1.9x TVPI and 1.2x DPI, yet the comparison is distorted by differences in vintage and maturity.
The article argues that private markets require benchmarks segmented by strategy, vintage, sector and methodology, since peer group rules, sample sizes and measurement dates all affect results. As a hypothetical illustration, it compares a 2020 vintage buyout fund with a 15.2% net IRR and 1.8x TVPI against an assumed peer median of 12.5% IRR and 1.6x TVPI, which would place the fund 2.7 percentage points ahead on IRR. The article states these benchmark figures are hypothetical and not actual Dakota data.
The article outlines five ways benchmarking could change wealth management software, including turning reports into decision tools, flagging underperforming funds earlier, and improving manager due diligence. It also notes that most software providers do not collect private fund return data, and that Dakota's dataset of 18,000+ funds, covering net IRR, TVPI, DPI, RVPI and PME, can be integrated through several partnership models. The piece is promotional in nature, as it is published on Dakota's own site and closes with calls to book a demo and contact its partnerships team.
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