What actually belongs in a trustee performance pack
A chair does not need every ratio a dealing desk can print. Here is the short list we keep putting on the first three pages, and why the rest waits in an appendix.
Journal
Working notes from the reporting desk.
These pieces are about files, captions, and committee time — the same material as the packs, written without a named client.
How we treat missing prices in a holdings file
A blank cell is not a rounding error. It is a decision about whether the pack can honestly show a time-weighted return.
Reading a drawdown chart without turning a quarter into a crisis
Peak-to-trough is a path, not a verdict. Committees get into trouble when they treat the lowest print as a policy failure.
Choosing a comparator the board will still recognise in three years
A clever blended index that nobody can licence twice is not a comparator. It is a private joke that will break at the first change of clerk.
When a contribution table misleads a careful reader
Adding up sleeve contributions feels like arithmetic you can trust. It is, until weights moved, cash sat idle, or a group was too coarse to mean anything.