What Your Fund Is Required to Report — and What You Have a Right to Know

You probably have more rights than you think

Here’s something most out-spouses don’t know: venture capital and private equity funds are required to provide regular financial reporting to their partners. If your spouse receives carried interest from a fund, there is financial information flowing to them — on a schedule, in structured formats, with real numbers.

The question isn’t whether this information exists. It’s whether you know about it, whether you’ve seen it, and whether you understand what it means.

What funds are required to report

Fund reporting obligations come from two sources: the LPA (Limited Partnership Agreement) and regulatory requirements. While specific obligations vary by fund, industry standards have converged around a common set of reports.

Quarterly reports

Most institutional-quality funds produce quarterly reports for their LPs. These typically include:

• Portfolio company valuations: Each company marked to estimated fair value, usually following ASC 820 (fair value measurement) guidelines. This is the fund’s internal assessment of what each investment is worth.
• Fund-level metrics: IRR (Internal Rate of Return), TVPI (Total Value to Paid-In), DPI (Distributions to Paid-In), and RVPI (Residual Value to Paid-In). These acronyms describe fund performance from different angles.
• Capital account statements: Beginning balance, contributions, distributions, gains/losses, and ending balance for each LP — including the GP.
• Portfolio company updates: Revenue growth, key hires, market developments, and risk factors for significant holdings.

As a GP or GP-affiliated individual, your spouse likely has access to more detail than LPs receive, including company-specific operational data, board materials, and internal strategic plans.

Annual audited financials

Funds are typically required to provide annual audited financial statements within 90–120 days of fiscal year end. These are prepared by independent accounting firms and provide the most reliable snapshot of the fund’s financial position.

The audit confirms portfolio company valuations, verifies cash flows, and tests the waterfall calculations that determine how much carry the GP has earned.

K-1 tax documents

Every fund partner receives an annual Schedule K-1 (Form 1065) for tax filing purposes. K-1s are typically issued by March 15, though fund K-1s frequently arrive late — sometimes as late as September or October via amended filings.

Your K-1 is not just a tax document. It contains substantive financial information about your carry position, including capital account balances, income allocations, and distribution history. See our guide on fund documents for a detailed K-1 walkthrough.

Distribution notices

When a fund exits an investment and distributes proceeds, each partner receives a distribution notice detailing the amount, source, and tax character of the distribution. These notices are concrete evidence that carry is generating real money.

What about your rights as a spouse?

This is where things get nuanced — and where a common misconception needs to be addressed.

Community property rights

In California and other community property states, carried interest earned during marriage is generally community property. This means you have a legal ownership interest in the asset itself.

However, ownership of the asset doesn’t automatically grant you access to fund-level information. The fund’s reporting obligations run to its partners (including your spouse), not to their spouses. Your spouse receives the reports, but the fund has no obligation to send them to you directly.

So how do you get access?

Several pathways exist:

1. Ask your spouse. Start here. In a healthy marriage, this should be a straightforward conversation. “I’d like to see our K-1s and understand our carry position.” If your taxes are filed jointly, you already have a legal right to review the K-1.
2. Joint tax returns. If you file jointly, the K-1 is attached to your joint return. You have full legal access to your own tax documents. Your CPA should have copies going back multiple years.
3. Spousal consent forms. Many funds require spousal consent for community property reasons. If you’ve signed one, you may have acknowledged the carry arrangement — and you may have a basis to request related information.
4. Legal discovery. In divorce or separation proceedings, fund documents and financial reports are generally discoverable. Your attorney can subpoena K-1s, capital account statements, quarterly reports, and carry allocation letters.
5. Fiduciary duty. In some jurisdictions, spouses have a fiduciary duty to each other regarding community property. This duty may include an obligation to disclose material financial information about community assets.

What funds are NOT required to disclose

Understanding limitations is as important as understanding rights:

• Proprietary investment strategy: Funds are not required to share their thesis, pipeline, or decision-making process with LPs (or GP families).
• Other partners’ allocations: Your spouse’s carry allocation is their information, but they don’t get to see what other team members receive.
• Real-time data: Quarterly reports reflect a point in time, often with a 45–60 day lag. You won’t get daily portfolio updates.
• Forward projections: Funds report historical performance and current marks. They typically don’t project future returns or distribution timelines.

The information gap is real — but it’s not insurmountable

The most common scenario we see: one spouse has deep knowledge of the fund’s portfolio and performance, and the other has almost none. This gap isn’t necessarily intentional or malicious. Fund professionals are busy, the information is complex, and explaining carried interest to a spouse who has no finance background can feel daunting.

But the gap is a problem. If carried interest is your family’s largest asset — and it often is — then one spouse having no visibility into that asset is a financial planning failure, regardless of the marriage’s health.

What you can do right now

1. Gather your K-1s. These are your tax documents. You have an absolute right to them. Call your CPA or check your tax returns for the last 3–5 years.
2. Get a baseline estimate. Use the CarryForward calculator with publicly available data. You don’t need fund reports to get a directional estimate.
3. Educate yourself. Understanding the basics of fund reporting — what exists, what it means, and what you can access — puts you in a stronger position for any conversation, whether it’s estate planning or something more difficult.
4. Talk to a professional. If you’re in a planning or separation situation, bring what you’ve learned to your attorney. Knowing that quarterly reports and capital account statements exist helps your attorney ask for the right documents.

Information asymmetry is the central challenge for families with carried interest. Closing that gap starts with knowing what information exists and where to find it.