The apology call came before the K-1 did
I'm in one small fund, a modest position, mostly because I wanted to see how the other side works after years of owning land where nothing ever needs reporting to anyone.
First March, my phone rings. It's the investor relations person at the sponsor, calling to say the tax documents are going to be late, roughly three weeks, because one of the property partnerships hadn't closed its books. She said it before I asked. She gave a date. She hit the date.
I've been on the other side of enough bad news in my life to know how rare that call is. I told her thanks and she paused like she wasn't sure what to do with it. She said most of the calls she makes that week are people telling her they've already filed an extension and could she please just say when.
Year two, same fund, documents were late again. No call. Turned out she'd left in December and nobody had picked up the phone list. I found out from an email that went out nine days after the original date, and it started with the phrase due to circumstances.
Same fund. Same properties. Same numbers, more or less. Completely different feeling about the whole thing, and all that changed was one person leaving.