What the new AIF norms mean for you.

Regulatory change in the alternative investment fund space rarely announces itself as an economic event. It arrives as a reporting obligation, a valuation requirement or a disclosure standard — and then shows up in the management company's cost base six months later.

The valuation requirements are the clearest example. Independent valuation at defined intervals, with a documented methodology and a named valuer, is no longer a best-practice recommendation. For managers who were marking positions internally, this is a new line item and a new source of friction with LPs who will now see a third-party number alongside the manager's own.

Disclosure of expenses at the scheme level is the second shift. Fees that were previously absorbed into a general expense allocation now have to be attributed, and the attribution has to survive review. Managers who have not modelled this are frequently surprised by how much of the expense ratio was doing quiet work.

The way to get ahead of all of it is unglamorous: rebuild the expense model, appoint the valuer before you are required to, and put the disclosure format in front of your advisory committee before the regulator puts it in front of you.