Private equity’s IRR claims slammed as “fake news”

Investors enticed by private equity’s claims of bullish performance could find they are built on “fake” foundations, the founder of a wealth management outfit has warned.

Preston McSwain, the managing partner of Fiduciary Wealth Partners (FWP), urged LPs to challenge the stats on IRR they receive from GPs, database indices and quartile rankings. “If you look closely, my strong bet is that you will start to notice that most every headline return chart or quote that you see or hear is a fake news IRR,” said McSwain, himself a former part of the industry after spending over a decade (1998-2009) at GP Neuberger Berman.