GP Mutual Insurance Pool

Carry isn't real until it's in the bank.

Insure up to half of your carry: a contractual floor if the position fails, a perpetual dividend stream whether or not the carry ever pays, and liquidity years before the distribution, without touching your fund, your LPs, or your portfolio company's cap table. The General Partner Mutual Insurance Pool (GPMIP) insures a slice, up to 50%, of your carried interest in a concentrated, late-stage winner, valued at today's mark. You pay $5K per $1M insured per year while the position is live. If the company fails, the pool pays you 50% of the insured face over three to five years. When the carry does pay, the pool receives the insured slice's proceeds, and you receive a life-long dividend stream from the pool's profits. That pool also insures hundreds of seed founders and late-stage employees, so your dividends draw on the seed winners' upside as well as your own fund's. The contract sits on your personal carry economics only: the fund's positions, the LP waterfall, and the company's cap table never change.

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50%
Of your carry in a qualifying position, insurable.
$5K/yr
Premium per $1M insured, while the position is live.
$500K
Payout per $1M insured, if the company fails.
~$3.88M
Median outcome per $1M insured, vs ~$0.16M for the uninsured slice.*

Your carry might be real. It is also one concentrated bet, and it isn't banked.

You may hold carried interest that is highly likely to pay. It is also extremely long-dated, and nobody can tell you when it will pay out: three years, five, ten. Even the winners that look on rails to exit are exposed to macro shocks and market downturns that can take a whole position to zero; any veteran GP will tell you the carry isn't done until it's in the bank. And for most GPs that carry is a significant share of their personal net worth, concentrated in one or two large positions in one fund.

Unfortunately, GPs have never had a good solution for this, and every prudent answer has a serious drawback: fund secondaries trade at a deep discount; selling individual positions likely breaches your duty to LPs who want the fund riding the upside; borrowing against unrealized carry is essentially unheard of. Now, for the first time, there's a new option: pool the risk with hundreds of other founders, employees and GPs.

Ride it alone, or insure the slice.

Same fund, same position, same carry. The only difference is whether a slice of it is insured.

Uninsured carry Insured, $1M face in the GPMIP
If the company fails The position, and that share of your carry, goes to zero. A contractual $500K per $1M insured, in cash over three to five years, or extra pool shares.
If the fund ends below its hurdle Nothing. The carry never pays. Your dividend shares still pay, for life, from a pool of founders', employees' and GPs' positions. Membership doesn't depend on fund performance.
Liquidity before the distribution A discounted fund secondary, or a sale your LPs won't thank you for. Borrow against your pool dividends. No sale, no discount, no LP conversation.
Your fund, LPs and portfolio company cap table — Untouched. We insure your personal carry economics; nothing at the fund or company level changes.
Any veteran GP will tell you the carry isn't done until it's in the bank.

What you get.

Benefit 01
A floor under the position.
If the insured company fails, you receive 50% of the insured face in cash over three to five years, or swap it for larger lifetime dividends.
Benefit 02
A dividend stream that outlives the fund.
One par dividend share per $1M insured, paying your pro-rata slice of the whole pool's annual surplus for life,3 seed founders' winners included, fully paid-up once the position exits or fails.
Benefit 03
Liquidity before the distribution.
Draw against your future dividends (a mortgage, a GP commit), collateralized by and repaid from the pool, with no personal recourse.4
Benefit 04
Fiduciary-clean by construction.
The forward sits on your personal carry, not the fund's stock. No position is sold, no LP economics move, and nothing appears on any cap table.
The Trade

A partial hedge, priced honestly.

You forward the insured slice's proceeds to the pool and keep the rest of your carry fully exposed to the upside. Illustrated on a $20M carry position with 20% insured: being insured leads to better outcomes in all but the largest upside scenarios.

Insured: 20% of the carry in the GPMIP
Outcome Uninsured carry,
post-tax		 Remaining 80%,
post-tax		 Payout + Dividends &
pool shares‡		 Total,
insured
Company fails (0×)$0$0$2.00M+$15.64M$17.64M
Fund ends below hurdle$0$0$0+$15.64M$15.64M
Exits 1.2× (median)$19.20M$15.36M$0+$15.64M$31.00M
Exits 3×$48.00M$38.40M$0+$15.64M$54.04M
Exits 6× (cap)$96.00M$76.80M$0+$15.64M$92.44M

Whole position: $20M of carry at today's mark, 20% ($4M face) insured; post-tax, illustrative assumptions; expected values before premiums (~$20K/yr while live).* ‡ ~$3.91M per $1M insured (~$2.85M dividends + ~$1.06M pool shares) = $15.64M on $4M face, identical in every row, because dividend shares are minted per $1M insured, not per outcome. Insured comes out ahead up to ~4.9× today's mark; ~13% of positions fail, ~40% of funds end below hurdle.

Members, not just policyholders.

Like whole-life mutual insurance, insured GPs actually own the pool: dividend rights proportional to face value insured, surplus paid out annually,3 backed by hundreds of founders', employees' and GPs' positions rather than one fund's. Every member holds the same dividend share and receives the same dividend per share, whichever product they joined through.

Where the money comes from, for the average GP insuring $1M of carry face:*

Mutual dividends received$2.85M
Pool shares, at horizon$1.06M
Failure payouts, in cash†$0.05M
Reinvested claim shares$0.05M
Premiums paid-$0.02M
Mean outcome (median: ~$3.88M)~$3.99M

Averages, so components add exactly. Uninsured slice: mean ~$0.7M, median ~$0.16M, a coin-flip whether it pays at all. † Averaged across all members; a GP whose company fails receives the full $0.50M per $1M insured.

The Numbers Underneath

Calibrated to late-stage reality, pooled with the seed stage.

The Base Case assumes what a GP would: PitchBook puts Series D+ outright failure near 13%; surviving positions exit at a median 1.2× today's mark, capped at 6×, in one to seven years; and a 60% probability the fund is in the money, so 40% of the time the carry pays nothing, a risk the pool bears alongside you. On those assumptions a pool of GP carry alone would run a loss ratio near 0.10. Blended with the seed and employee books, the whole pool's runs near 0.17: the underwriting still funds itself, and dividends come from surplus, not from new members' premiums.*

Failure rate modeled
13%
Series D+ outright failure, per PitchBook.
Median exit
1.2×
Today's mark, capped at 6×; exits in one to seven years.
Carry in the money
60%
40% of funds end below hurdle; the pool bears that risk too.
Pool loss ratio
~0.17
The whole blended pool; ~0.10 for the GP book alone.

Why your carry is pooled with seed founders. Late-stage carry is the steadiest risk we insure: it rarely fails and mostly exits within one to seven years. That early, predictable cash is what lets the pool carry seed founders, whose failures come first. In return, your dividend shares pay from the seed winners too. Run as one, the pool needs about 2.9× less worst-case cash than the same three books run as separate pools, and in the model it ends year 40 about 36% larger. How the pool works.

We don't publish a public simulator for the GPMIP. The model, its calibration, and its assumptions are available to the GPs we're underwriting; ask us to walk you through it on a call.

We underwrite the fund and the position first.

We insure late-stage (Series D+ and pre-IPO) positions at current mark, in funds we would back ourselves, underwritten case by case. The hedge is deliberately partial: 50 cents on the insured dollar, and the slice's upside is forwarded to the pool. The floor covers the company failing, not the fund ending below its hurdle, though your dividend shares pay either way. You still want the position to work. But with the GPMIP, your net worth is no longer riding on that one large exit.

Positions
Series D+ and pre-IPO, at today's mark, underwritten case by case
Coverage
Up to 50% of your carry in a qualifying position, via a forward
Premium
$5K per $1M insured, per year, while the position is live
Payout on failure
$500K per $1M insured, over three to five years, if the company fails
Membership
One dividend share per $1M insured, for life, in the whole pool
Manager
Rising Tide Management LLP. Structure in structuring.4
Who It's For

Is the GPMIP right for you?

For GPs at highly qualified funds. Your portfolio's founders and their teams can join the same pool, and we built products for them too.

Insure the Carry
General partners at highly qualified funds
Tell us about the fund, the position, and roughly what your carry in it is worth at today's mark. We underwrite the fund and the position first, case by case.
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Your portfolio founders?
Pre-seed and seed founders
The Founder Mutual Insurance Pool (FMIP) is the founder version of the same chassis: insure up to 10% of a founder stake, receive a contractual payout if the company fails, and hold dividend shares in the whole pool, for life.
Explore the FMIP
Your portfolio companies?
Series B to E companies
The Employee Mutual Insurance Pool (EMIP) is the same chassis pointed at employee equity: a floor under the downside, upside they keep, and liquidity before exit, sponsorable as a benefit with no cap-table impact.
Explore the EMIP
How it fits together
One pool, three ways in
Founders, employees and GPs hold the same dividend share in one mutual pool. See how blending lowers the pool's risk and grows the pool every member shares in.
How the Pool Works

Common questions.

How much of my carry can I insure, and what does it cost?

Up to 50% of your carry in a qualifying position, for $5K per $1M insured, per year, paid while the position is live. Premiums stop when the position exits or fails, and your dividend shares are then fully paid-up.

What happens if the company fails?

You receive a contractual payout of 50% of the insured face ($500K per $1M insured), in cash over three to five years, or you can swap it for extra pool shares and larger lifetime dividends.

What if the fund ends below its hurdle?

The floor covers the insured company failing, not the fund ending below its hurdle. Your dividend shares still pay, for life: membership doesn't depend on fund performance.

Does this touch my fund, my LPs, or the company's cap table?

No. The forward sits on your personal carry economics, not the fund's stock. No position is sold, no LP economics move, and nothing appears on any cap table.

Why is my carry pooled with seed founders?

Because each makes the other stronger. Your late-stage carry rarely fails and pays out sooner, which steadies the pool while the seed book matures; seed founders' rare large winners lift the dividend every member receives. Run as one, the pool needs about 2.9x less worst-case cash than the same three books run as separate pools.

Which positions qualify?

Late-stage (Series D+ and pre-IPO) positions at current mark, in funds we would back ourselves, underwritten case by case.

The Bottom Line

A hard floor if the company fails, a perpetual dividend stream from the whole pool whether or not the carry ever pays, and liquidity years before the distribution. With no discounted secondary and no change to LP economics.

For GPs at highly qualified funds.

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* Illustrative and hypothetical. Not a forecast, guarantee, or offer. Figures are Base Case Monte-Carlo output for a GPMIP member of the blended Rising Tide pool (the FMIP, EMIP and GPMIP books on one balance sheet) at the model's defaults (200 paths; GP book: 13% failure per PitchBook Q3 2024 Series D+ data, α = 3.5, median exit 1.2× today's mark, 6× cap, one-to-seven-year exits, 60% probability the carry is in the money; illustration at 20% of a $20M carry position): median insured-GP outcome ≈3.88× insured face, mean ≈3.99×, versus ≈0.16× median and ≈0.71× mean for the uninsured slice, over a 40-year horizon, net of premiums, including payouts, dividends, reinvested claim shares, and pool-share value. Modeled loss ratio ≈0.17 for the blended pool (≈0.10 for the GP book alone; claims against all inflows). The floor triggers on outright failure of the insured portfolio company only. Borrowing against dividends is not modeled. Model verified 23 October 2026.

† Averaged across all members; a GP whose company fails receives the full $0.50M per $1M insured.

‡ Approximately $2.85M cumulative dividends plus $1.06M pool-share value per $1M insured, or $15.64M on $4M of insured face, identical in every row because dividend shares are minted per $1M insured, not per outcome.

3 Dividends are discretionary, paid only from pool surplus when the pool is debt-free, and are not fixed obligations. Payouts, dividends, and pool values are model outputs and targets, not promises.

4 Borrowing against dividends is not modeled, and its terms are subject to structuring. Simplified tax assumptions (20% on a zero basis); carried interest may be taxed differently (including under §1061), so seek personal advice. All terms are indicative and subject to final terms, underwriting, and regulatory approvals. The FMIP, EMIP and GPMIP are in structuring as a single mutual pool; no insurance policy or security is offered hereby, and no regulatory approval has been sought or obtained. Rising Tide Management LLP.