5 Qualities to Look for in a Best-in-Class Daily Valuation Partner

President Trump issued an executive order in August asking the Labor Department to consider allowing defined-contribution (DC) retirement plans to invest in alternative assets. As open-end private real estate funds seek to continue to expand into this space, delivering daily valuations with institutional-level rigor has become mission-critical.  

These funds—often structured as collective investment trusts (CITs)—typically combine private real estate assets, public REITs and cash. They require a reliable daily net asset value (NAV) to support DC platform eligibility, fiduciary oversight and participant confidence.  

“Fund managers need a daily valuation partner with professionals who have the requisite expertise, and a technology platform that ensures consistent execution,” said Mackenzie Clouse, SitusAMC Director, Daily Valuations. “The valuation team must understand the complexities of private real estate, operate with institutional discipline and deliver transparent, consistent reporting that meets investor expectations and audit scrutiny – even as markets shift and portfolios evolve.” 

SitusAMC has prioritized building an industry-leading offering which integrates both Valuation Management and Daily Valuation. The firm has made strategic long-term investments in developing proprietary technology platforms -- VMS Next (Valuation Management System) and DVS (Daily Valuation System) -- to drive efficiency and transparency throughout the valuation process.  

For investment managers, daily valuation requires more than just plugging numbers into a model. Daily valuation must be transparent, scalable and responsive to rapidly changing market and portfolio conditions. A best-in-class valuation partner combines seasoned professionals, disciplined processes, purpose-built technology and investor-ready reporting, grounded in consistent industry best practices. Here’s a closer look. 

1. A Deep Bench of Experts 

Daily valuation is as much about interpretation as it is about calculation. Fund managers need professionals with proper credentials and a proven track record across market cycles. A high-quality partner brings together a multidisciplinary team which blends asset-level expertise, fund-level insight and audit-readiness.  

For example, SitusAMC’s Real Estate Valuation Services leadership team includes credentialed appraisers, agents and valuation specialists, each with an average of 10+ years of daily valuation experience. They apply a multi-dimensional approach, assessing asset, fund and market-level inputs to ensure that every NAV reflects reality. SitusAMC's methodology has proven resilient through periods of market stress—from the global financial crisis to COVID-era dislocations and inflationary volatility—ensuring consistent accuracy and investor confidence. 

2. Institutional Discipline, Adapted for Daily Scale  

Most private real estate funds are valued on a monthly or quarterly basis. Translating that to a daily cadence requires an institutional-grade process that mirrors end-of-period fund accounting.   

For instance, SitusAMC replicates the client’s quarterly NAV process, incorporating fund-level cash flows, income and capital return components, JV ownership structures, waterfalls, expenses, management fees and investor activity. The valuation team works in close collaboration with fund managers to ensure that valuations are responsive to new acquisitions, dispositions, capital events or reallocation decisions. This ensures the daily NAV remains synchronized with reality and the expectations of the fund's accounting team. 

3. Purpose-Built Technology for Accuracy, Speed, and Oversight  

Investment managers should look for partners that can deliver daily valuation at scale, backed by technology that automates, governs, tracks and provides real-time reporting. SitusAMC’s Daily Valuation System (DVS) is a proprietary platform built specifically for the complexities of daily reporting for private real estate assets. The system can perform bulk uploads and reviews of asset-level data and valuation changes, offering transparent, auditable history for every data point and decision that was made throughout the reporting period. The process setup is configurable for consistency and control, and the system offers real-time review prior to publishing NAV reports. Daily reports are automatically delivered to fund administrators and trustees. DVS is agile -- tracking onboarding of new assets, adjusting for sales and restructures and producing investor-grade results with speed and transparency.  

DVS is the only platform in the industry purpose-built for daily valuation of real estate, reflecting SitusAMC’s continued investment in technology to meet the evolving needs of fund managers and defined contribution investors. 

4. Transparent, Investor-Ready Reporting  

Fund managers should look for daily valuation outputs that go beyond a number. Reporting should provide clarity, context and confidence to investors, trustees, auditors and regulators. SitusAMC delivers a full suite of reports designed to meet institutional due diligence standards that ensures consistency, accuracy, and timeliness of clients evolving reporting requirements. They include daily NAV/share price reporting, real estate GAV reporting and daily memoranda and change logs.  

Every output is backed by transparent calculations and documented inputs, supporting both real-time decision-making and long-term audit readiness.  

5. Consistent Best Practices: Governance That Scales 

Daily valuation must operate within a repeatable control framework. Look for a partner that codifies methodologies into operational playbooks aligned with the Defined Contribution Real Estate Council (DCREC). This includes clear input hierarchies, version-controlled assumptions and documented workflows.  

SitusAMC embeds institutional-grade governance in every aspect of the process: multi-professional review/approval, time-stamped change logs, data lineage tracking and reconciliation procedures across fund accounting, capital activity and quarterly NAVs. Exception handling, materiality thresholds and consistent KPIs ensure an efficient process built to withstand audit scrutiny. In fact, the SitusAMC leadership team helped develop and write the original DCREC guidelines. This expertise and leadership have driven the majority of the NFI-ODCE funds that report a daily value to partner with SitusAMC for their daily valuation needs.  

“It takes the right blend of dedicated daily valuation professionals, experience, purpose-built technology and real-estate know-how to deliver daily valuations clients can trust,” said Brian Velky, SitusAMC Managing Director, Real Estate Valuation Services. “That kind of consistency and transparency is exactly what defined contribution investors are seeking.” 

Conclusion  

DC plans require a valuation partner that understands the nuances of private real estate, operates with precision and delivers with transparency. SitusAMC provides daily reporting on more than $200 billion in gross asset values. With more than 15 years of experience, a proprietary platform and a team that helped define industry standards, SitusAMC brings confidence and clarity to the valuation process, every single day. 

SitusAMC is the leading provider of independent, licensed commercial real estate valuation and review services, offering valuation management, daily valuation, appraisals and more. For more information on SitusAMC’s Daily Valuation services, visit our website.