The most quoted sentence on this website is a caveat. It appears beside every result we describe: our records are maintained internally and are not audited or attested by an independent accountant. Most firms would treat that line as fine print. We think it deserves an article, because if you understand exactly what it means, you can diligence us properly, and if you don't, no amount of polish should persuade you.
Start with the distinction. An attestation is an engagement in which an independent CPA examines specific records and methodology (for an operator like us, first-year operating records and the methodology by which SPLT's NAV is calculated) and issues a signed report on what was examined. An audit is broader: an opinion on complete financial statements under formal auditing standards. Both are independent. Neither is a rubber stamp. The honest difference is scope, and the honest similarity is that until the report is signed and dated, neither exists.
That is where we are: there is no signed report, and no audit or attestation engagement is in place today. Our records are unaudited, and we say so wherever we describe first-year results: one fiscal year, a single period, not yet a track record. We would rather repeat that caveat to the point of tedium than have a single reader come away believing we hold a signed attestation. We do not.
A fair question follows: why talk to allocators before an independent report exists? Because Rule 506(c) was built for exactly this transparency — offering documents, risk factors, and verification gates doing the work that polish cannot. We'd rather show the work honestly than appear finished. Some investors will wait for an independent report before engaging seriously. That is a reasonable position, and when it's yours, the correct move is to tell us so — we will come back when the bar is met.
For readers who engage now, here is how to diligence a first-year operator properly. Ask for the records themselves, under NDA, and trace the NAV methodology against the ledger trail; our first-year records were written to a permissioned ledger precisely so they cannot be quietly revised. Watch the desk work live and reconcile what you see against what we report. Ask who outside counsel of record is, and read the legal opinion rather than our summary of it. In short: verify the verifiers. Any operator who resists that request is telling you something.
What changes if we engage an independent CPA? This site will name the firm and the scope the same week, and any report will be made available to verified investors through the data room. What will not change is the single-period caveat — an attestation examines records; it does not transform one year into a track record, and we will not pretend otherwise.
A caveat understood is worth more than a credential assumed. That is the standard we hold our own materials to, and the standard we'd encourage you to hold us to.