Key takeaways

  • Between 2019 and 2025, fee terms in closed-ended direct lending converged gradually. Management fees, carried interest, and total fee loads compressed modestly or held stable.
  • Unlevered funds in the US and Europe have converged on a median management fee of about 1.00% and carried interest of about 10.00%.
  • US levered funds charge higher headline fees, show wider dispersion, and saw the sharpest compression. Their median management fee fell from 1.50% to 1.08% and their median fee load from 2.88% to 2.60% between 2019 and 2025.
  • Negotiated economics matter beyond headline terms:
    • Size-based management fee discounts rise stepwise with commitment size and then plateau at about 20%.
    • Early-bird discounts exhibit a median of about 10% of the management fee.
    • Managers almost never offer performance fee discounts.
  • The findings draw on SPI by StepStone, a proprietary dataset of 250 closed-ended funds managed by 100 general partners (GPs). The study normalizes all management fees to a net asset value (NAV) basis and uses explicit yield and leverage-cost assumptions.

Executive summary

This study provides investors with insight into how direct lending GP fees compare over time and across private debt markets in the US and Europe. The analysis is based on SPI by StepStone, our proprietary database, and reflects the advertised fees disclosed by GPs in their marketing materials. It examines fee structures in direct lending funds, focusing on closed-ended vehicles raised between 2019 and 2025.

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