One thing I've always wondered about: why do some verifiers force their clients to sign contracts that restrict them from leaving? We have clients who had to delay coming on board because they were trapped in such contracts that made it difficult to switch. In...
Performance Perspectives Blog
Thoughts on performance measurement from David Spaulding and other members of our team.
Is your verifier requiring you to sign a restrictive contract?
read more
What question does the GIPS for Asset Owners composite return answer?
The revised GIPS for Asset Owners guidance statement hasn't yet been finalized, but we can pretty much expect that the time-weighted composite return requirement will remain. At a recent NYSSA (New York Society of Security Analysts) GIPS program, that I had the...
The GIPS verification field just got a bit smaller: congratulations to ACA
ACA acquiring Ashland's GIPS verification practice In case you haven't heard, ACA Compliance Group has announced that they are acquiring Ashland Partners' GIPS Verification and performance practice. We congratulate ACA for this major achievement. From our...
Not GIPS compliant? How about a non-GIPS verification?
Let's face it, the Global Investment Performance Standards (GIPS(R)) are extremely popular, and thousands of asset managers throughout the world have adopted them. And, most of these firms get annual GIPS verifications. Both compliance and verifications are de...
Why not turn your car into an automobile university
There's an automobile university near you that's taking new students! I posted about this idea nearly four years ago, and thought it worthy to do so again. Have you thought about enrolling in automobile university? What do I mean by that? Simply, to turn your...
GIPS Pooled Funds Guidance Statement Released!
In September 2013, those of us who attended the annual GIPS(R) conference were provided with some rather scary news: that managers with pooled funds (e.g., mutual funds) would be required to provide all prospective fund shareholders with the composite...
Crossing return gaps to meet client requests
Return gaps can often occur. And so, there are times when we might want to be able to "cross" them: that is, to extend performance across this gap, so that we have a continuous return. However, there are times when the manager may not want to cross it, but the...
When gross minus net doesn’t equal the annual advisory fee: still an oldie but a goodie
Perhaps the problem I'll touch on is such that firms will avoid reporting gross- and net-of-fee returns. Hopefully not. A new GIPS(R) (Global Investment Performance Standards) verification client reached out with a problem. One of their clients subtracted their...
How to “slim down” your GIPS presentation
Chances are that if you claim compliance with the Global Investment Performance Standards (GIPS(R), your GIPS presentations are running out of room. But many GIPS compliant firms like to limit their composite presentations to one or two pages. Over the years,...
Annualized standard deviation: Why? What for? What does it mean?
We just published our monthly newsletter (a few days late, but better-late-than-never, right?). And already we've gotten comments in on two things: #1 is our puzzle, but a close #2 is my commentary on annualized standard deviation. And, as I point out, the recent...