Every decision, every rationale, preserved for the life of the fund
The institutional memory LP audits and successor funds depend on
Most funds cannot answer the question 'why did we do this deal?' five years later. The partner has left. The deck is in a folder no one can find. The IC notes were never written down.
Decision provenance is the structured record of every decision the firm ever made, the evidence that supported it and the dissent against it. Reuben AI maintains it automatically as a by-product of how the platform is used.
Also known as
Decision Provenance is Reuben AI's term for Audit Trail for Investment Decisions. The immutable record of who decided what, when, on what evidence and under which mandate version. Preserved so LPs and regulators can reconstruct it.
The institutional memory problem
Funds are people-dependent in ways they should not be. When a partner leaves, decades of context can leave with them. Successor funds make the same mistakes the prior fund already made and forgot.
As AI enters investment decisions, LPs and regulators are asking a new question: can you show how the AI reached its recommendation, on which data, and who reviewed it? A defensible answer requires provenance built in, not bolted on.
How it works
Decision objects
Every IC decision is a structured object: deal, date, voters, votes, rationale, conditions, dissent. Permanent and queryable.
Evidence binding
Every claim in the IC memo links to the underlying source: the customer reference call, the financial model, the legal opinion.
Dissent and conditions
Conditions imposed at IC are tracked through to portfolio operations. Dissents are revisited automatically at later milestones.
AI reasoning trail
Every AI-generated assessment, summary or flag carries the model version, prompt context, source documents and reviewer sign-off. Nothing is a black box.
Mandate context
Each decision is stamped with the version of the fund's saved mandate in force at the time, so later reviewers can reconstruct the strategy the deal was evaluated against.
See Decision Provenance in your fund
Explore the workflow directly with an investment team, or discuss how it could support a platform's clients.
What changes when provenance is native
LP audits stop being a scramble. Successor funds inherit institutional memory instead of restarting from scratch. Regulatory ADI, SEC or AIFMD questions on AI use in decisions get precise, sourced answers.
Internally, partner turnover stops being a knowledge cliff. New partners inherit the reasoning behind the fund's history, not just its outcomes.
How do I preserve source versions and decision rationale across the investment lifecycle?
Bind each material claim to the source version reviewed and preserve the mandate, memo and rationale used for each decision. When evidence or judgement changes, add a dated revision linked to the earlier record rather than overwriting the basis for the original decision.
Judgement stays human. The process becomes disciplined.
Frequently asked questions
Is this the same as an audit log?
No. An audit log records events. Decision provenance records reasoning: what was decided, why, on what evidence, with which dissent, against which version of the mandate.
How does this help with LP AI due-diligence questionnaires?
Every AI output has model version, source documents and reviewer sign-off attached, so LP AI DDQ questions on model risk, human review and source verification have direct answers.
Does this apply to AI-assisted decisions or only human ones?
Both. Any AI-generated assessment, summary or flag that fed a decision carries the same provenance record as the human vote itself.
What happens to the provenance record if we switch platforms later?
Records are exportable in structured form (JSON, CSV, PDF) at any time. Provenance travels with the fund, not with the vendor.
Is Reuben AI SOC 2 or ISO 27001 certified?
Reuben AI is not currently certified under SOC 2, ISO 27001 or equivalent frameworks. Security questionnaires are supported on request, and any future certification will be sourced to a named auditor and report reference.
How long is the record retained?
For the life of the fund and the record-retention window your LPA and jurisdiction require. Deletion policies are configurable per fund.
Can regulators query the record directly?
Access is controlled by the fund. When regulators request evidence, the fund can produce structured, timestamped, sourced records without depending on individual recall.
Does this slow the IC down?
No. Provenance is a by-product of using the platform. The IC works in the memo as usual; the record is captured automatically.
What identifies a source version?
Record the document identity, version or dated snapshot, relevant passage and the date reviewed so a later reader can locate the evidence actually used.
Should updated documents replace earlier evidence?
No. Keep the earlier reference for historical decisions and link the updated evidence to a new review.
What if a source can no longer be accessed?
Record the access limitation and retain only copies permitted by the applicable rights and retention policy. Do not imply that an unavailable source was reverified.
How should rationale survive a team handover?
Keep the conclusion, assumptions, dissent, unresolved questions and approving authority together so a successor can reconstruct the decision without relying on personal memory.
Defensible AI for investment decisions, explored
Deep answers on the exact question you're solving. Each entry links to a dedicated page with tables, FAQs and cross-links into other Reuben AI capabilities.