AIMA is pleased to present the 2025 Edition of its Illustrative Questionnaire for the Due Diligence of Investment Managers.  While this edition of the investment manager DDQ retains the modular approach first adopted in 2017, it also makes significant refinements to the substantive and technical aspects of the DDQ that we hope investors and investment managers will agree improve the documents overall.

To make it significantly easier to identify the modules that should be used in any given instance, we have developed a decision tree which asks the user to answer 3-5 short questions.  At the end of the questions, there is a recommendation on which templates are the most appropriate based on the answers provided and links to fully integrated templates containing those recommended modules.  One click, one download and you are ready to go. 

In addition, our terrific working group of volunteers helped us to refine the questions to such an extent that, even though we added more than 100 questions across the modules, most users transitioning from the 2017 or 2019 editions will see a net reduction in the number of questions in the templates they use.

Key changes to the DDQ include, among other things:

• Refinements to the questions regarding:
  • Performance presentations;
  • Outsourcing and technology risks;
  • The presentation of strategies;
  • Counterparty risks;
  • Leverage risks;
  • Liquidity risk management risks;
  • Anti-money-laundering;
  • Expense disclosures; and
  • Fund counterparties and service providers.
• Inclusion of a new "Private Markets" strategy module;
• Integration of questions regarding technology matters and fund directors rather than relying on separate DDQs;
• Separation of the trading related questions from the operations and risk management module;
• Flexibility in how to respond to data requests;
• Ability to remove certain instructions and unchosen answer choices to shorten the overall presentation;
• Potential to add questions in line with the other questions on a topic rather than at the end of the section; and
• Removal of all the free text and date-related content controls.

The template options involving either a corporate lending or private markets strategy are available with ACC branding as part of the ACC Illustrative Questionnaire for the Due Diligence of Private Credit Managers, which has also been updated and has its 2025 edition out today.

There is a concordance showing how the 2019 questions track over to the 2025 questions and a video showing how to transition the text from existing responses where relevant.

Because the AIMA Illustrative Questionnaire for the Due Diligence of Investment Managers is updated relatively infrequently, this March 2025 is a "soft" launch of the updated DDQ suite.  We invite members to assess the DDQ modules they would use and provide any feedback to us by September 15.  We will then further refine the modules based on that feedback and publish a final 2025 edition of each module and template before year end.  When submitting comments, please identify the template you are commenting on.  The Template ID is at the bottom of each page of each document in the suite.  Comments should be submitted to Jennifer Wood ([email protected]).