The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 2 plus 3 plus 2 plus 1 plus 4 letter word AS FAR AS I KNOW
I've seen this crossword clue in Financial Times
A
S
F
A
R
A
S
I
K
N
O
W
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "to the best of my understanding" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case to the best of my understanding = as far as i know.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.