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AltHarbor / Methodology

How AltHarbor turns disclosure into research

AltHarbor organizes filings and identified fund documents into source-linked facts, normalized series, and clearly labeled calculations.

The method is designed to help a reader see what was reported, what AltHarbor changed, what remains uncertain, and where the evidence came from. It does not tell anyone how to allocate capital.

Selective coverage · Source-linked evidence · No ratings or recommendations

Last updated

How it works01 / 20

The standard

A material figure is not complete simply because it has a number. Where the source record permits, an AltHarbor figure is expected to answer five questions.

What is being measured?

The metric, definition, unit, denominator, and economic basis.

At what grain?

Fund, share class, portfolio, position, property, borrower, event, or another stated level.

As of when?

The reporting period, measurement date, filing date, and any later extraction or update date.

Where did it come from?

The source document and, where available, its form, period, accession, section, page, table, or excerpt.

What did AltHarbor do to it?

Nothing, normalization, calculation, estimation, classification, or editorial explanation.

When the source record cannot answer one of those questions, AltHarbor exposes the limitation rather than silently filling it.

How it works02 / 20

From source record to product

AltHarbor’s research process follows seven stages.

  1. 01

    Define the subject

    The fund, vehicle, registration regime, manager, share classes, and relevant reporting entities are identified before individual metrics are collected. This reduces the risk that information from a parent company, feeder, parallel vehicle, or unrelated share class is assigned to the wrong product.

  2. 02

    Build the source record

    AltHarbor identifies the document families relevant to that vehicle. Depending on the field, those may include registration statements, annual and quarterly reports, portfolio filings, tender documents, repurchase notices, prospectus supplements, current manager disclosures, or other identified materials.

  3. 03

    Extract at the correct grain

    A figure is captured at the level at which the source reports it. Fund-level data is not presented as share-class data. A quarterly flow is not substituted for a period-end portfolio measure. A related metric is not used merely because the intended field is unavailable.

  4. 04

    Preserve provenance

    Extracted facts retain a connection to their source record. Depending on the field, that record may include the source document, filing date, period of report, accession, section, page, source table, excerpt, extraction timestamp, unit, basis, and notes describing ambiguity or normalization.

  5. 05

    Normalize only where definitions permit

    AltHarbor may align units, dates, currencies, naming conventions, share-class labels, categories, or periods. Normalization changes presentation, not the underlying economic meaning. Where definitions remain materially different, the values remain separate or are marked as qualified comparisons.

  6. 06

    Validate, hold, or reject

    Values are tested against the applicable schema, expected grain, units, source language, and internal consistency rules. Clean source-backed values may proceed. Ambiguous or conflicting values are held for review. Values with an unsupported semantic match, prohibited source, destructive effect, or unresolvable contradiction are not published as clean facts.

  7. 07

    Publish, monitor, and revise

    Later filings may update, amend, restate, or supersede earlier information. AltHarbor retains the relevant source history, updates affected facts, and recalculates dependent values where necessary.

How it works03 / 20

Coverage

AltHarbor covers semi-liquid and continuously offered private-market vehicles across:

  • Private credit.
  • Private equity.
  • Private real estate.
  • Private infrastructure.

Covered structures may include non-traded business development companies, interval funds, tender-offer funds, non-traded real estate investment trusts, and publicly reporting perpetual or evergreen vehicles.

Coverage is selective rather than exhaustive. A fund’s presence in the catalog does not represent an endorsement, rating, or recommendation. Coverage depth can differ by fund, period, structure, and asset class because disclosure requirements and source availability differ.

A field may be meaningful for one structure and inapplicable to another. AltHarbor does not force unlike vehicles into an identical data template merely to make the database look complete.

How it works04 / 20

Sources and authority

The appropriate source depends on the field.

Operative legal and offering documents

Authoritative for. Legal structure, registration status, offering terms, share classes, fees, conflicts, governing language, eligibility requirements, and other structural facts.

Document families. Operative registration statement, prospectus, annual report, or other controlling document appropriate to the vehicle’s reporting regime.

Cannot establish alone. Current operating outcomes such as a specific tender acceptance amount, unless separately disclosed in a later event document.

Periodic regulatory filings

Authoritative for. Recurring financial statements, portfolio schedules, NAV and net-asset reporting, performance periods, leverage, capital activity, and other periodic disclosures.

Document families. Annual reports, quarterly reports, shareholder reports, portfolio filings, and regulatory census filings.

Cannot establish alone. Whether a later amendment or manager current-data notice has superseded the period snapshot for a live operating field.

Liquidity and event documents

Authoritative for. Repurchase programs, tender terms, requested amounts, accepted amounts, proration, suspensions, amendments, and material events.

Document families. Tender offer materials, repurchase notices, 8-K event filings, and related amendments.

Cannot establish alone. Structural offering terms that only the operative legal documents control.

Manager current-data sources

Authoritative for. Current operating information that regulatory filings may report only later, where the manager or fund is the appropriate publisher.

Document families. Current NAV pages, fact sheets, performance pages, distribution notices, tender calendars, and portfolio updates.

Cannot establish alone. A field as fact when the definition, period, or methodology is unclear, or when an operative legal document controls the same structural question.

Context sources

Authoritative for. Background, market events, or terminology that helps a reader understand the primary record.

Document families. Industry references, market context notes, and explanatory materials.

Cannot establish alone. A field as fact unless the information is separately supported by an appropriate primary or manager-direct source.

Data Sourcing describes the source record itself in more detail: which document classes are used and in what order, how a document is located and attached to the right vehicle, what provenance travels with each value, and what AltHarbor publishes when the source or the pipeline cannot support a claim.

How AltHarbor sources data

How it works05 / 20

One figure, one evidence trail

A source view may include the filing or document type; filing and reporting dates; accession or source URL; section, page, or table; a relevant source excerpt; the value as reported; the value after normalization; unit, currency, scale, and basis; extraction method and version; confidence or review state; and the formula and cited inputs for a derived value.

Not every legacy record contains every layer of evidence. Where deeper proof has not been captured, the interface should say so rather than suggest that it exists.

Controlled example — not based on any specific fund.

Source records

8-K · 2026-06-15

Distribution declaration

The Board declared a monthly distribution of $0.21 per share for Class I.

Manager NAV notice · 2026-06-30

Net asset value

Class I net asset value per share was $30.00 as of June 30, 2026.

  1. 01 · Source record

    Start with the documents that own each input.

    The controlled declaration owns the monthly per-share amount. The controlled NAV notice owns the denominator and its date.

  2. 02 · Exact disclosure

    Preserve the language that supports the fact.

    The excerpt, section, date, and document role remain attached so a reader can evaluate whether the source supports the field.

  3. 03 · Structured fact

    Store value, unit, grain, date, and origin separately.

    The two reported inputs remain separate facts. Neither is silently converted into the final rate.

  4. 04 · Published figure

    Show the calculation and both inputs beside the result.

    The 8.40% result is labeled Derived. Its annualization, share class, denominator date, formula, and reported inputs remain visible.

Data language06 / 20

How AltHarbor labels information

AltHarbor separates three different questions: origin (where information came from and what AltHarbor did to it), qualifier (what conditions attach), and availability (why a value may be unavailable).

A value can carry more than one characteristic. For example, a reported distribution may also be preliminary, while an AltHarbor-derived ratio may depend on a stale input.

AltHarbor’s standard is not to substitute zero for an unavailable value. AltHarbor also does not use one generic “missing” state when a more precise explanation is known.

Origin and treatment

  • Reported

    A value located in an identified source and reproduced or closely restated. “Reported” describes its relationship to the source; it does not mean AltHarbor or an auditor independently verified the underlying disclosure.

  • Normalized

    Reported information mapped into a consistent format or taxonomy. Normalization may align units, periods, dates, currencies, categories, names, or share classes. It cannot eliminate substantive differences between structures or source definitions.

  • Derived

    A value calculated by AltHarbor from identified inputs using a stated formula or rule. A derived value is not fund-reported merely because its inputs were reported.

  • Editorial

    An AltHarbor-authored explanation, summary, headline, or contextual observation. Editorial content is kept distinct from extracted source facts and should not be presented as language issued by the fund.

Qualifiers

  • Estimated

    An approximation dependent on assumptions, incomplete inputs, interpolation, or classification judgment.

  • Preliminary

    Information the source identifies as subject to finalization or later characterization.

  • Amended

    A later source revises or replaces previously reported information.

  • Conflicting

    Two relevant sources disagree and the discrepancy has not been fully resolved.

  • Stale

    The source date materially lags the period for which the value is being used.

Availability

  • Not disclosed

    A comprehensive review of the identified source record did not locate the field.

  • Not yet extracted

    AltHarbor has identified relevant source material but has not completed the field.

  • Not applicable

    The field does not apply to that structure, strategy, or reporting regime.

  • Failed

    A collection, processing, data, or rendering problem prevented the value from being produced.

Data language07 / 20

Extraction and validation

AltHarbor applies several rules before a value is treated as clean.

Exact semantic match

A related disclosure is not substituted for the requested field. “Senior secured” is not automatically “first lien.” New commitments at floating rates are not the same as the percentage of the existing portfolio at floating rates. NAV is not GAAP net assets merely because the two values are close.

Correct period and grain

Share classes, reporting periods, legal entities, and measurement dates remain distinct. Since-inception performance is not copied into a one-year field. A period total is not stored as a quarterly amount merely to fill a blank.

Comprehensive review before “not disclosed”

AltHarbor does not reach a source-silent conclusion from one convenient document. The relevant source families and available filing history are reviewed according to the field’s extraction policy before the field is labeled not disclosed.

Internal consistency

Where the underlying data permits, calculations are tested against identities and expected ranges. Component totals, beginning-and-ending balances, percentages, cash-flow bridges, and other relationships are checked without forcing values to reconcile when the source itself does not.

Independent cross-checks

High-stakes numerics, newly introduced fields, and known problem areas may receive a separate extraction or reconciliation pass. Disagreement is surfaced for review rather than averaged away.

Restricted source material

Public availability and republication rights are not assumed to be identical. Materials marked confidential, internal-use-only, not for redistribution, or otherwise restricted are excluded or escalated rather than copied into the public product.

Data language08 / 20

Derived values

Every derived value should resolve to:

  • Its formula.
  • Its inputs.
  • The unit and basis of each input.
  • The source and date of each input.
  • The output period or as-of date.
  • Any assumptions, exclusions, or denominator choices.

Derived calculations may include ratios, changes, aggregations, annualizations, component decompositions, peer context, or other transformations.

A formula is not valid merely because it produces a number. Inputs must match in grain, period, units, share class, and economic meaning. A fund-level numerator should not be divided by a share-class denominator. A quarter-end balance should not be combined with an unrelated trailing-period flow without an explicit method.

When an input is amended, restated, or replaced, dependent derived values should be recalculated or identified as awaiting recalculation.

Metric methods09 / 20

Performance figures

Time-weighted NAV return is not IRR.

Each performance figure should identify the share class or fund-level basis; the start and end dates; whether the return is cumulative or annualized; whether distributions are reinvested; the treatment of management fees, incentive fees, servicing fees, sales loads, and expenses; the valuation framework supporting the return; and whether the figure was reported, normalized, or derived.

AltHarbor does not extend a return history into periods the fund did not report. “N/A” is not zero. A since-inception result is not a substitute for a one-year, three-year, five-year, or year-to-date result.

Some evergreen private-equity vehicles disclose both transactional-NAV returns and GAAP Financial Highlights returns. Those are separate frameworks and should not be blended. Where transactional NAV is the investor-facing basis, it remains identified as such.

Time-weighted NAV returns are also distinct from traditional private-equity measures such as IRR, MOIC, DPI, RVPI, TVPI, and PME. Those measures answer different questions, require different inputs, and may not be publicly disclosed for continuously offered structures.

Historical performance is not a forecast, recommendation, or representation of what any investor will earn.

Metric methods10 / 20

Distributions

A distribution rate is not yield.

A distribution amount, distribution rate, yield, income figure, and total return are different measures.

Where a distribution rate is displayed, AltHarbor should state the distribution amount; the share class; the denominator, such as NAV or offering price; the denominator date; the measurement period; whether the rate was annualized; and whether the figure was reported or calculated.

Distributions may be funded from net investment income, realized gains, expense support, fee waivers, borrowings, offering proceeds, return of capital, or a combination. Cash paid to an investor is not necessarily income earned by the fund.

Declaration data and tax-character data can arrive at different times. A newly declared distribution may have no component breakdown. A Section 19(a) notice or periodic report may later provide a preliminary decomposition, while final tax reporting may revise the character again.

Preliminary character remains labeled preliminary. Final information may supersede it, but the earlier source record should not disappear.

Metric methods11 / 20

Liquidity, tenders, and repurchases

Policy capacity is not accepted liquidity.

Liquidity programs are described through distinct quantities.

Policy capacity

What the governing program permits the fund to offer.

Requested

What shareholders asked the fund to repurchase or redeem.

Accepted

What the fund actually purchased.

Deferred or unaccepted

The portion not accepted in that window.

Those quantities are not interchangeable. A stated quarterly capacity does not establish that investors received that amount of liquidity. Historical acceptance does not guarantee future acceptance.

AltHarbor also distinguishes a cap binding during an otherwise normal program; a discretionary extension of capacity; proration; a formal suspension or policy amendment; a later resumption; and a request that must be resubmitted from one that legally remains in a queue.

“Deferred” is not automatically presented as a standing redemption queue. In many structures, an unaccepted request expires and must be submitted again. Where cumulative deferred demand is calculated, it is labeled as a derived history rather than as shares unquestionably awaiting redemption.

Offers may be reduced, prorated, delayed, modified, or suspended. A repurchase program is a policy, not an assurance of liquidity.

Metric methods12 / 20

Valuation and NAV

NAV is not realizable value.

AltHarbor identifies the valuation measure being shown. Depending on the source, that may be transactional NAV, share-class NAV, GAAP net assets, fair value, cost, amortized cost, par value, transaction price, or another stated basis.

Those measures are not interchangeable.

Each valuation figure should carry its as-of date and relevant fund or share-class scope. A repurchase price should not be compared with a NAV from a different date without an explicit qualification.

Private assets may rely substantially on models, appraisals, manager estimates, or other unobservable inputs. AltHarbor does not independently appraise assets or issue valuation opinions. A reported NAV may differ materially from a realizable value in a sale, tender, or stressed market.

A smooth valuation series does not by itself establish low risk or ready liquidity.

Metric methods13 / 20

Portfolio, holdings, and position data

Cost, fair value, par, and exposure are not interchangeable.

Portfolio information is a dated disclosure snapshot, not a real-time inventory.

Holdings are captured at the level the source supports. Cost, par value, principal amount, fair value, ownership percentage, and exposure are separate measures. Position names may be normalized for consistent identity, but distinct legal entities should not be merged merely because their names resemble one another.

For private credit, borrower, instrument, lien position, maturity, coupon, non-accrual status, and payment-in-kind treatment are preserved as separate concepts where disclosed.

For private equity, underlying company exposure, direct investments, secondaries, primary commitments, and fund interests require different treatment.

For real estate and infrastructure, property, asset, geography, debt, revenue, contract, or operating metrics are retained at the source-supported grain.

The shared methodology is not a shared list of forced fields. Asset-class-specific data remains asset-class-specific.

Metric methods14 / 20

Fees and expenses

A gross expense ratio is not a net expense ratio.

Fees are shown by the share class and basis to which they apply.

Management fees, incentive fees, performance allocations, servicing fees, distribution fees, acquired-fund expenses, expense reimbursements, waivers, sales loads, and other charges are not automatically additive.

A temporary waiver is not a permanent fee reduction. A fee based on NAV may not be comparable with one based on gross assets, net assets, committed capital, invested capital, or income.

AltHarbor does not publish an “all-in fee” unless the included components, denominator, period, and assumptions are explicitly defined.

Governance15 / 20

Comparisons

Comparison begins with eligibility, not ranking.

Before placing values beside one another, AltHarbor considers whether the observations align across vehicle and registration structure; asset class and strategy; fund or share-class grain; reporting and as-of periods; currency and unit; valuation basis; return framework; fee and expense treatment; distribution treatment; liquidity mechanics; and source definition and coverage.

Comparability not assessed

No differences have been applied to the pair, so no comparability conclusion has been reached. A shared headline figure is not itself a finding of equivalence.

Comparable with qualifications

The values can be viewed together, but one or more differences must remain visible.

Not comparable on the available basis

The source definitions, periods, structures, or missing inputs would make a side-by-side figure misleading.

AltHarbor does not force a comparison merely because two database columns share a name. Peer ranges and ordering provide context; they do not designate a winner or constitute a recommendation.

Controlled example — not based on any specific fund.

Vehicle A

8.40%

Vehicle B

8.40%

Comparable with qualifications

Apply differences to this comparison
  • Vehicle A: Non-traded BDCVehicle B: Interval fund

    If applied: The legal and liquidity structures are different enough that the shared headline rate cannot stand alone as a clean comparison.

  • Vehicle A: Class IVehicle B: Institutional

    The classes may carry different servicing, distribution, or eligibility terms.

  • Vehicle A: 2026-06-30Vehicle B: 2026-05-31

    If applied: The rates use NAV observations from different dates.

  • Vehicle A: After class expensesVehicle B: Before sales load

    If applied: Different fee treatment prevents a clean side-by-side conclusion.

  • Vehicle A: MonthlyVehicle B: Daily

    If applied: The denominator is refreshed at a different cadence and may absorb market information differently.

  • Vehicle A: Derived by AltHarborVehicle B: Reported by the fund

    If applied: One rate is calculated from stated inputs and the other is source-reported under its own methodology.

  • Vehicle A: Quarterly tender, discretionaryVehicle B: Periodic repurchase under Rule 23c-3

    If applied: The vehicles do not offer the same access to liquidity even when their headline distribution rates match.

Why this state — the applied differences only

  • The classes may carry different servicing, distribution, or eligibility terms.

Governance16 / 20

Changes and severity

AltHarbor may identify filing-backed changes such as a distribution adjustment; a tender or repurchase result; a change in program capacity; a suspension or resumption; an amended filing; a material portfolio or valuation update; or another disclosed event.

A signal describes an observed event in the source record. It is not a prediction of performance or a recommendation to act.

Severity may be used to organize attention according to the nature, recency, or materiality of the disclosed event. It does not mean that a fund is good, bad, suitable, unsuitable, safe, or unsafe.

Where available, a change should retain its before-and-after values, applicable dates, and supporting sources.

Governance17 / 20

AI-assisted research

AltHarbor may use artificial intelligence and other automated tools to locate passages, extract tables, classify information, map fields, summarize source language, or test whether evidence supports a displayed value.

The identified source—not model-generated language—is the evidence.

AI-assisted reconciliation is constrained to supplied source material. Unsupported citations, fabricated source references, non-verbatim quoted passages, and investment-opinion language are rejected rather than presented as clean research.

AI output does not directly modify published product data merely because a model produced it. Findings may enter a review state for confirmation, dismissal, correction, or further investigation.

Human review is applied selectively according to the field, risk, ambiguity, and review process. Human review can also miss errors; it does not turn a source value into an independently audited fact.

AltHarbor does not provide personalized or conversational AI investment recommendations.

Governance18 / 20

Corrections and disputes

Anyone may report a suspected error, including a reader, fund, manager, issuer, or other affected party.

A useful correction request identifies the fund and share class; the page, field, or report; the value or statement at issue; the requested change; the supporting document; its date, page, section, or other source location; and the requester’s relationship to the subject.

AltHarbor reviews the submitted evidence against the applicable source policy. Payment, customer status, commercial relationship, and requester identity do not determine the result.

A factual error is distinct from a disagreement over methodology or editorial interpretation.

When a material correction is made, the public record should state what changed, when it changed, and why. A source amendment or restatement is labeled as such rather than mischaracterized as an AltHarbor error.

Report a possible error

Governance19 / 20

Method changes

This page carries a last-updated date. Material changes to formulas, source rules, status definitions, or comparison treatment are summarized here when adopted.

When a method change affects previously published derived values, affected values are recalculated or identified as having been produced under an earlier method.

The public register contains date, area, what changed, affected surfaces, and whether the change is prospective or recalculated.

DateAreaChangeAffected surfacesTreatment
2026-08-05Data status definitionsThe single “Missing” status was retired from the published label set. Availability is now defined as one of Not disclosed, Not yet extracted, Not applicable, or Failed, and is kept separate from origin (Reported, Normalized, Derived, Editorial) and from qualifiers (Estimated, Preliminary, Amended, Conflicting, Stale). Editorial was defined as a distinct origin. This entry records the published definitions; values already displayed on other surfaces were not relabeled.Methodology status definitions and Research Disclosures version 2026-08-05.prospective

Governance20 / 20

What AltHarbor does not do

  • Issue buy, sell, hold, avoid, or allocate recommendations.
  • Determine suitability for any person or account.
  • Rank funds through one universal score.
  • Forecast returns, liquidity, distributions, or valuation outcomes.
  • Independently audit fund disclosures.
  • Appraise private assets.
  • Replace a prospectus, offering document, financial statement, tender document, tax report, or governing agreement.
  • Present structurally incompatible figures as clean comparisons.

Coverage is selective and may contain errors, omissions, delays, or stale information. Source documents may be amended or superseded after publication.

Readers should verify material information against the fund’s current operative documents before relying on it.

Research only—not investment advice or a recommendation. Verify against fund documents.