Good article. These issues should be routinely brought to the attention of LPs.

The ultimate resolution would seem to be reliable and standardized , GP-independent,valuation techniques that would allow to compare periodic returns similar to performance in the public equity market. AICPA has made a valuable contribution in this direction with the recently published set of guidelines. The extent to which they are implemented in practice remain to be seen.

One of the challenges is having vendors to provide valuation service on the behest of LPs rather than GPs. Otherwise, we get into the all two familiar world which is direct analogue to credit rating agencies rating the parties that pay for the ratings.