System and Method for Private Equity Fund Formation

Abstract

A system for private equity fund formation comprises an equity fund application and a memory configured to store fund documents. Access to the fund documents is managed by the equity fund application according to the status of a user as a general partner, an investor, or a placement agent, which is embodied in an authorization code. Fund documents are organized according to fund firm, fund family, and specific fund. The equity fund application includes an agreement engine that automatically creates agreement documents based on information entered by a user in response to a questionnaire. In one embodiment, the equity fund application and the memory are implemented in an application server. Users interact with the equity fund application in the application server via a network and an access server.

1 . A system for private equity fund formation, the system comprising:
 a computing network,   an application server including a memory and a private equity fund application, the application server in communication with the computing network, the private equity fund application further comprising an agreement engine configured to:   generate at least one electronic questionnaire,   receive investor information over the computing network in response to the at least one electronic questionnaire, and   automatically generate a subscription agreement for the private equity fund, the subscription agreement incorporating the investor information received in response to the at least one questionnaire.   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the private equity fund application is further configured to generate a digital fingerprint for the subscription agreement and include the digital fingerprint on each page of the subscription agreement. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the private equity fund application includes a user registration module configured to register users with the system utilizing a user name and a password. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the private equity fund application includes a fund formation module configured to generate web pages presented to users via the computing network. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the private equity fund application includes an email interface configured to automatically create email messages when a user is added to the system. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the private equity fund application includes a document management module configured to manage access to fund documents. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the private equity fund application includes an authorization code generator configured to automatically generate an authorization code when a user is added to the system. 
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 7 , wherein the authorization code represents a specific fund family. 
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the private equity fund application includes a fund formation module configured to generate a spreadsheet that summarizes generated subscription agreements. 
     
     
         10 . A method for private equity fund formation, comprising:
 accessing a website;   registering as a user of the website by selecting a user name and password; and   interacting with the website to automatically generate a subscription agreement for a private equity fund, the subscription agreement incorporating investor information received in response to at least one questionnaire, the investor information based at least in part on an answer to a question, the question automatically generated in response to an answer to a previous question.   
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10 , the method further comprising:
 entering an authorization code.   
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the authorization code represents a specific participant. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the specific participant is an investor. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the specific participant is a general partner. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the specific participant is a placement agent. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 10 , the method further comprising:
 viewing a fund family home page.   
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16 , the method further comprising:
 interacting with the fund family home page to view fund documents.   
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 17 , wherein the fund documents available to view via the fund family home page depend upon an entered authorization code. 
     
     
         19 . A system for private equity fund formation, comprising:
 means for accessing a web site;   means for registering as a user of the website by selecting a user name and password;   means for entering an authorization code;   means for selecting a fund family;   means for viewing a fund family home page; and   means for interacting with the fund family home page to view fund documents.   
     
     
         20 . The system of  claim 19 , further comprising means for interacting with the fund family home page to create a subscription agreement.