The recurring fee — conventionally about 2% a year — that funds the GP's operating costs, paid regardless of whether the fund's <em>investments</em> succeed.
A structure where the GP earns carried interest on each profitable exit, rather than waiting until the whole fund returns capital. The <em>American waterfall</em>.
Multiple on Invested Capital — total value returned and held divided by capital invested. It answers <em>how many times your money came back</em>, ignoring time.
The waterfall tier where, after the preferred return, the GP takes a heavy share of profit until it has <em>caught up</em> to its full carry percentage.
A structure where the GP earns no carry until LPs recover <em>all</em> drawn capital plus the preferred return across the whole fund. The European waterfall.
Distributions to Paid-In — cash actually returned to LPs divided by capital they paid in. The <em>realized</em> multiple, owing nothing to marks.