We were recently asked by a client to come up with a list of current trends in performance measurement. In collaboration with my colleague John Simpson we propose the following:

1.    GIPS 2010(R)
2.    We are seeing non-traditional sectors (alternative asset classes, such as real estate, private equity, and others, along with hedge funds) showing interest in GIPS.
3.    We also see increased interest in the retail market for GIPS compliance.
4.    GIPS verifications are definitely up; don’t know if this is a result of Bernie Madoff, the market downturn, or both or something else, but we get inquiries from lots of firms who want to get verified; in some cases these are firms who have been claiming compliance for some time, while in other cases they’re firms who are also wanting to become compliant with the standards
5.    Money-weighting (granted, WE do a lot of talking on this subject, but many of our clients, too, find it of value)
6.    We are seeing some interest in reviewing report packages, to ensure that what is provided is appropriate; either us do the review of they do a self-review; some of this translates into report design, as you would expect.
7.    There seems to be some interest in reporting standards, though I think reporting guidelines would be better and I think this is what most folks really mean
8.    Ex ante (forward looking) risk
9.    Data quality; is the data scrubbing sufficient? this also includes validation, to some extent, of the indices.
10.  We continue to see interest in fixed income attribution
11.  CIPM Program
12.  Balanced portfolio attribution.

And so, what do you think?