How the Top1031 Grade works

• The Grade evaluates a Sponsor's documented public record, not an individual offering.
• It is not a safety, credit, suitability, or expected-return rating.
• Unknown and still-operating programs are censored rather than treated as successes or failures.
• Evidence Strength and Documented Risk Alerts are reported separately from the letter.

Three score factors

1. Documented investor capital preservation: 45%. Judged from the Sponsor's reported investor outcomes where available: a reported equity multiple of at least 1.0× counts as preserved, and where no multiple is reported, a non-negative reported investor return does. Recovery below 1.0× or confirmed impairment does not. A completed program with no reported investor return or multiple is excluded from this factor.
2. Documented lifecycle outcome: 25%. A completed sale or 721/UPREIT pathway receives full lifecycle credit without implying profit. Partial exits receive credit equal to their documented economic share; unknown scope is excluded. Documented distress receives zero. Ongoing and unknown programs are censored.
3. Proportional disclosure coverage: 30%. Exact Sponsor track-record matches are divided by confirmed terminal economic programs. Coverage is proportional rather than capped after an arbitrary number of matches.

Reported Performance contributes 0%. The size of a reported return never raises or lowers the letter; only whether investor capital was preserved enters the score. Return figures remain visible as sourced facts where appropriate.

Evidence and identity gates

Only Sponsors whose SEC filings have been resolved to a confirmed identity are scored, and only their tracked programs count. Program outcomes are drawn from the documented public record—SEC filings, sponsor disclosures, and cited third-party reporting—each carrying its supporting source links.

A program affects the letter only when its outcome is documented; a program still operating, or with an unknown outcome, is censored rather than scored. Documented distress—completed foreclosure, receivership, bankruptcy, or suspended distributions—must be evidenced before it lowers a factor or raises a Risk Alert.

Each run records a separate evaluation date and data-knowledge cutoff; evidence first available after the cutoff is excluded automatically. A recorded exit dated before the program's first filing is excluded as anomalous.

Letters, evidence strength, and alerts

Frozen letter thresholds are A ≥80, B ≥70, C ≥50, D ≥42, and F <42. Evidence-depth gates apply after the score.

A requires at least 10 documented terminal programs; B requires at least 5 documented lifecycle outcomes. A comparative letter otherwise requires at least five tracked Programs, three documented lifecycle outcomes, and two documented investor capital outcomes.

NR means Not Rated. The public record does not meet the evidence requirements for a comparative letter. NR is not a failing grade, and documented risk does not disappear behind NR.

Many Sponsors run their programs as private placements (Regulation D / Form D) that publicly disclose when a program is raised and when it is sold, but not the realized investor return. A Sponsor can complete many programs with no documented distress and still be NR, because we will not assign a returns-based letter without documented investor returns. For these Sponsors we still show the documented record—completed programs and any distress events—so a long, clean operating history remains visible even without a letter.

Evidence Strength is Strong, Moderate, or Limited based on confirmed identity, eligible sample depth, primary or independent source coverage, current-status coverage, recency, and contradiction state. It describes confidence in the supporting record—not whether a sponsor or offering is safe—and does not add quality points. Documented Risk Alerts identify severity-defined public events separately and never disappear behind a strong letter.

Top1031 does not publish an exact ordinal sponsor rank because it would overstate the precision of the evidence.

Corrections and governance

Corrections change cited inputs and rerun the formula; letters and scores are never edited directly. Commercial relationships are not formula inputs. The same evidence protocol, factual-correction window, and independent approval controls apply to every Sponsor.