When is it best to create a Deal Memo?

A Deal Memo is a document designed to capture the rationale of the manager for doing a specific deal. The Deal Memo is used to explain your investment decisions to limited partners and to help the manager look back and refine deal making logic based on how the deals perform over time.

Deal Memos are normally developed over the course of evaluating an investment opportunity, starting when then manager starts to take an opportunity seriously. Most of the activity around writing and developing a Deal Memo is completed during due diligence, and the final touches are placed after the deal is completed.