{"concept_id":"ALTSS-PERF-025","slug":"vintage-year","canonical_name":"Vintage Year","aliases":["fund vintage","vintage"],"kind":"term","authority":"industry","facets":["PRF","LIF"],"domains":["PERFORMANCE","FUND-TERMS"],"display_title":"Vintage Year","search_aliases":["what is vintage year","vintage year private equity","fund vintage meaning","how is vintage year determined","vintage year benchmarking"],"one_sentence_definition":"A fund's vintage year is the year used to group it with comparable funds for benchmarking and portfolio planning, usually the year of its first capital call or of its first legally binding close; conventions differ.","plain_english":"Funds raised in the same year invest through similar markets, so their returns are compared with each other rather than with funds from other years. The vintage year is that grouping label. It sounds like a fact, but there are several ways to set it, and the same fund can fall into two different years depending on the rule used.","parent_concepts":[],"child_concepts":[],"related_concepts":["quartile-ranking","peer-group","first-close","capital-call","commitment-pacing","j-curve","benchmark","benchmark-universe","continuation-vehicle"],"comparison_concepts":[],"not_the_same_as":[{"slug":"first-close","distinction":"First close is an event; vintage year is a classification that may or may not be set by that event."},{"slug":"investment-period","distinction":"The investment period is the window in which the fund may make new investments; the vintage is a single year label."}],"formula_ids":[],"worked_examples":[{"title":"Illustrative fund with a year-end first close","paragraphs":["A fund holds its first close on 15 November 2023, makes its first capital call on 20 February 2024 and its first investment in March 2024. Under the first-close convention its vintage is **2023**; under the first-capital-call or first-investment convention it is **2024**. Ranked against 2023 peers it may be top quartile and against 2024 peers below median, with no change in its performance."]}],"sections":[{"heading":"Conventions in use","paragraphs":["The [Global Investment Performance Standards](/glossary/gips) (GIPS) 2020 recognise two methods: the year of the vehicle's first drawdown or capital call from investors, or the year in which the first committed capital from outside investors is closed and legally binding. Other conventions are also used: the year of first investment, the year of legal formation, and, in some LP records, the year the LP itself committed. Benchmark providers publish their own rule. Before comparing a fund with a vintage cohort, confirm which rule the manager used and which the dataset used."]},{"heading":"Vintage-year benchmarking","paragraphs":["Private fund benchmarks are built by vintage because entry valuations, financing conditions and exit markets differ by year, and because funds of different ages are at different points of the [J-curve](/glossary/j-curve). Within a vintage, funds are ranked on net IRR, TVPI or DPI into quartiles (see [quartile ranking](/glossary/quartile-ranking) and [peer group](/glossary/peer-group)). A fund placed in the wrong vintage is compared with funds that had more or less time to mature, which biases its ranking."]},{"heading":"Vintage diversification and pacing","paragraphs":["LPs commit to private funds across several vintages so that no single year's entry conditions dominate the portfolio. [Commitment pacing](/glossary/commitment-pacing) models plan commitments year by year, and portfolio reports group exposure by vintage to show how much of NAV and unfunded capital comes from each market environment."]},{"heading":"Special cases","paragraphs":["- **Evergreen and open-end funds** have no single vintage; investors' entry dates differ. Some managers report performance by subscription year.\n- **Secondary funds** have their own vintage, but buy interests in funds of earlier vintages; their exposure is to the underlying vintages.\n- **Co-investments and direct deals** are usually grouped by the year of investment.\n- **Continuation vehicles** are new vehicles with their own formation year, even though the assets were acquired earlier by the original fund (see [continuation vehicle](/glossary/continuation-vehicle)).\n- **Fund families** with parallel or feeder vehicles share the main fund's vintage by convention."]}],"classification_rules":[],"calculation_rules":[],"common_mistakes":["Presenting one vintage convention as the definition.","Ranking a fund against a cohort built on a different vintage rule.","Treating vintage as a marketing label rather than a benchmark input.","Assigning an evergreen fund a single vintage and benchmarking it against closed-end cohorts."],"edge_cases":["A first close late in December and a first call in January place the fund in adjacent vintages under the two GIPS methods.","A fund that holds a first close but delays its first call for many months may look young against its first-close cohort.","Restructured or re-launched funds may report the original vintage or the restructuring year; disclosure should say which."],"external_standard_mappings":[{"standard":"GIPS 2020 for Firms","reference":"Glossary: vintage year (two methods)","relation":"equivalent","source_id":"SRC-GIPS-2020-GLOSSARY","note":"Year of first drawdown or capital call; or year first committed capital from outside investors is closed and legally binding."}],"source_ids":["SRC-GIPS-2020-FIRMS","SRC-GIPS-2020-GLOSSARY"],"citations":[{"source_id":"SRC-GIPS-2020-GLOSSARY","pinpoint":"vintage year","supports":"Two methods: first drawdown/capital call, or first legally binding close of outside commitments","source":{"source_id":"SRC-GIPS-2020-GLOSSARY","title":"GIPS Standards for Firms 2020 - Glossary (defined terms)","authors":"CFA Institute","publisher":"CFA Institute","document_type":"standard","url":"https://www.gipsstandards.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/2020_gips_standards_firms.pdf","year":2019,"publication_date":"Glossary section of the 2020 edition","jurisdiction":"intl","status":"Current","last_verified":"2026-10-01"}},{"source_id":"SRC-GIPS-2020-FIRMS","pinpoint":"2.A.27, footnote 16","supports":"Before 2020, PE primary funds had to be in composites defined by vintage year and strategy","source":{"source_id":"SRC-GIPS-2020-FIRMS","title":"Global Investment Performance Standards (GIPS) for Firms 2020","authors":"CFA Institute","publisher":"CFA Institute","document_type":"standard","url":"https://www.gipsstandards.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/2020_gips_standards_firms.pdf","year":2019,"publication_date":"2020 edition; effective 1 January 2020; required for GIPS Reports with periods ending on or after 31 December 2020","jurisdiction":"intl","status":"Current","last_verified":"2026-10-01"}}],"faq":[{"q":"Is the vintage year the year a fund was launched?","a":"Not necessarily. The two GIPS methods use the first capital call or the first legally binding close; other conventions use the first investment or the year of legal formation. The start of marketing is not a vintage convention."}],"seo":{},"first_published":"2025-12-29","last_reviewed":"2026-10-01","last_modified":"2026-10-01","content_version":"2.0.0","url":"https://altss.com/glossary/vintage-year","json_url":"https://altss.com/reference/concepts/vintage-year.json","title":"Vintage Year","formulas":[],"sources":[{"source_id":"SRC-GIPS-2020-FIRMS","title":"Global Investment Performance Standards (GIPS) for Firms 2020","authors":"CFA Institute","publisher":"CFA Institute","document_type":"standard","url":"https://www.gipsstandards.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/2020_gips_standards_firms.pdf","year":2019,"publication_date":"2020 edition; effective 1 January 2020; required for GIPS Reports with periods ending on or after 31 December 2020","jurisdiction":"intl","status":"Current","last_verified":"2026-10-01"},{"source_id":"SRC-GIPS-2020-GLOSSARY","title":"GIPS Standards for Firms 2020 - Glossary (defined terms)","authors":"CFA Institute","publisher":"CFA Institute","document_type":"standard","url":"https://www.gipsstandards.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/2020_gips_standards_firms.pdf","year":2019,"publication_date":"Glossary section of the 2020 edition","jurisdiction":"intl","status":"Current","last_verified":"2026-10-01"}]}