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Free calculator · Fund Economics

Catch-Up & Clawback

Calculates a GP catch-up from the preferred return already paid and a clawback that trues up deal-by-deal promote against whole-fund results. Inputs are the pref paid and the GP’s target promote share on one side, and per-deal profits and losses, the promote rate, and promote already collected on the other.

By Devon Coombs, CPA, MBA · Teaching Professor of Finance, Santa Clara University · Reviewed August 2026

From the author: Devon Coombs, CPA, MBA teaches finance at Santa Clara University and works with corporate teams on practical AI.

AI training for finance teams · Consulting · The 10 Laws of Finance

Interactive Tool

Catch-Up & Clawback

GP catch-up

Preferred return paid to LPs
GP target promote share

Clawback (deal-by-deal true-up)

Deal A profit
Deal B loss
Promote rate
Promote already collected

Your turn

Work out the GP catch-up on the first deal and the clawback the GP owes back once the fund is trued up.

Catch-up. The LPs have been paid $800,000 of preferred return. The partnership agreement gives the GP a 20% promote and includes a full catch-up tier, so once the pref is paid the GP receives cash until it holds 20% of all profit distributed above returned capital.

Clawback. The same sponsor took promote deal by deal. Deal A made $5,000,000, Deal B lost $3,000,000, the promote rate is 20%, and the GP has already collected $1,000,000. The fund is measured on whole-fund results.

The cash paid into the catch-up tier, not the profit that funds it. Within $5,000 counts as correct.

Enter 0 if nothing has to be returned. Within $10,000 counts as correct.

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This calculator comes from the free Real Estate Finance course, where the concept is taught with readings, worked examples, and practice questions.

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Built by Devon Coombs, CPA, MBA, Teaching Professor of Finance at Santa Clara University.