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Professional Standards - FAQs

General

How can I view a recording of a Professional Standards briefings? 

With Professional Standards briefings we discuss key topics and provide members with the opportunity to ask questions to subject matter experts. The recordings of previous briefings are available on the Professional Standards Briefings page. 

Stay tuned to INREV News to find out the topic for the next briefing call.

How can I reach Professional Standards publications? 

The INREV Library includes all Professional Standards publications, including snapshots (publicly available) and full reports (members only). 

Stay tuned to INREV News to find out about new publications of Professional Standards. 

How can I become a committee member? 

INREV industry standards are largely the result of several committees dedicated to constantly updating and improving our guidelines and standards. These include committees for Due Diligence, Performance Measurement, Reporting, Secondary Markets and Liquidity and ESG.

INREV selects and rotates committee members once a year. The applications for joining an INREV committee are open throughout the year by filling in the Application Form.

Can INREV give advice or recommend a service provider (legal/consulting firms etc.) to assist members in different topics (such as, for ESG issuing green bonds)? 

INREV represents the whole industry and does not make recommendations or provide advice on the services of individual members. We do provide members with access to the INREV Member Directory that allows them to search for the contact details of individuals. In the near future, the directory will be expanded to allow members to search for companies by expertise.  

INREV Guidelines

Does INREV provide a standard for conducting risk management procedures or organising risk management function?

INREV provides guidelines for risk reporting. Please see the specific section in the INREV Reporting Guidelines

INREV DDQ also provides a section for Risk Management and Compliance as part of the supplementary stage of due diligence. 

Does INREV provide sustainability guidelines? 

INREV has embedded Sustainability Reporting into the INREV Reporting Guidelines which means that it is mandatory to report on sustainability annually to claim compliance with the INREV Reporting Guidelines. 

INREV also provides a set of sustainability best practice recommendations which are not mandatory to claim compliance with the INREV Guidelines. They provide an extended set of requirements for investment managers who want to advance their reporting on ESG integration in a greater detail. 

With TGER, what are the changes made to TER? How can I calculate TGER? 

The Fee and Expense Metrics module was updated to replace TER with TGER. See the Tools and Examples section for an example of TGER calculation and a Q&A on the differences between TER and TGER. 

Does INREV provide tailored guidelines for different vehicle types?

A filter functionality is available for users to select and implement the guidelines that apply to the vehicle type they are most interested in. We currently have a vehicle filter in place for Open end, Closed end, Separate Account, Joint Venture/Club Deal and Debt Funds.

How are the Guidelines organised? What is the difference between best practice and compliance guidelines when looking to adopt the INREV Guidelines? 

The INREV Guidelines are organised into modules. These are either best practice modules or compliance modules.

The best practice modules are qualitative in nature and individual vehicles will adopt them in different ways. The compliance modules are more technical in nature. These contain requirements that leave no room for interpretation, i.e., the requirements are either followed, or not.

The Guidelines are embedded in an Adoption and Compliance Framework which allows investment managers and investors to evaluate the implementation of the INREV Guidelines, module by module. 

Do you have a technical question?

See INREV Guidelines Q&As Sections

INREV Guidelines

INREV Self-Assessment Tool

How can I understand a vehicle’s compliance level with the INREV Guidelines?

The Self-Assessment Tool allows investment managers to self-assess their vehicles’ compliance with the INREV Guidelines. Vehicles receive a score which can be shared with investors and used for peer-to-peer comparison.

Please see the Self-Assessment Tool demo, to learn more about the features of the Self-Assessment tool. 

How can I access Self-Assessment Tool for a specific vehicle? 

INREV members can use the Self-Assessment Tool once they logged in to inrev.org. It is possible to create a new vehicle via the Vehicle Dashboard. In order to access existing self-assessments, the user needs to be granted access for the specific vehicle.

Is it possible to share access rights with our colleagues or with other stakeholders? 

Each vehicle has an owner who can view access requests, invite users to the dashboard, and manage access rights of other users. If you are not the owner, you should ask the assigned owner to give you access to a specific vehicle. 

Vehicle owners can share the overview by using the “share” button. 

Who can see my answers in the Self-Assessment Tool?

Only users who are granted the right access by the vehicle owner can view the answers in the Self-Assessment Tool of a specific vehicle. 

Is it possible to move answers of a vehicle to another one?

You can use the import answers function to pre-fill an assessment with your previous answers (if available). You can then update your imported answers as applicable.

How can I download an empty assessment?

On the Vehicle Dashboard there is an option to download a blank copy of each assessment module. 

How can I participate in the INREV Trends in Investor Reporting study?

INREV conducts its Trends in Investor Reporting study every two years into what extent investor reporting complies with the INREV Guidelines. 

If you would like to participate in the upcoming INREV Trends in Investor Reporting study, please contact professional.standards@inrev.org.

INREV DDQ

Does INREV have guidelines on operational due diligence? 

Operational due diligence guidance is embedded into the Supplementary stage of the INREV DDQ. A standardized Data Room framework is also available here

Is it possible to add my company logo to the INREV DDQ or to other INREV products?

INREV currently has a strict policy on usage of the INREV logo. As an Association who represents the non-listed real estate industry, we restrict usage of the logo together with another company logo. Instead, we offer an “I am a Member of INREV” logo, which is for the use of INREV members only, and can be placed on the members’ website.

Are INREV DDQs and the DDQ appendices mandatory to comply with the INREV Guidelines?

The INREV DDQs are standardised templates that complement the INREV Guidelines but they are not part of its formal structure.

INREV currently provides DDQ appendices around specific topics: Tax, Climate Risk, Impact Investing. Please see the INREV DDQ section for the latest updates and appendices.

Appendices are applicable across all DDQs, but it is not mandatory to fill the appendices in order to use INREV DDQ.

Does INREV provide separate DDQ for different vehicle types? 

INREV provides separate DDQs for specific vehicle/investment types to address areas relevant to debt managers and Fund of Funds / Multi-Managers. Please see INREV DDQ section for the latest updates.

ESG

How does INREV support its members with regards to ESG practices and impact investing? 

INREV provides a coherent framework for sustainability reporting in line with annual financial reporting. One part is included in the Reporting module as mandatory requirements. The other part is about best practice recommendations aimed at those users wanting to add additional details to their mandatory requirements. INREV’s dedicated ESG page is a central source of information regarding ESG.

Does INREV Sustainability Best Practice align with industry standards, guidelines available in this area?

Please see here for an overview of the alignment of the INREV sustainability reporting guidelines and best practice recommendations with industry standards recognised to be applied in current market practice.  

Are there any examples of how to develop an ESG strategy?

Please see here for an example of Sustainability reporting to support the implementation of the guidelines. For more examples and case studies, please visit the Global ESG Library.

Does INREV provide the investment universe of the funds/assets promoting ESG in their investment strategy? 

INREV does not have specific data or ESG universes available. We are currently running an Asset Level Sustainability industry pilot to gather data on building certificates, energy consumption and GHG emissions. If you would like to participate in the pilot study, please contact professional.standards@inrev.org.

GDD

Is it possible to download the full list of terms in the Global Definition Database? 

On the GDD page there is an option to download the full list of terms and definitions. 

How can I see the list of terms for a specific topic?

The GDD enables users to filter terms and definitions by topic and source and also sort the latest added and most viewed topics. Please see the demo, to learn more about the GDD functions.

Questions about Standards?

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