1.
Pre-Verification & Compliance Consulting
Our pre-verification consultation covers calculation methodologies, composite membership guidelines, and a thorough review of your marketing and advertising disclosures.
We can also assist your firm in the initial stages of compliance by not only providing guidance from the GIPS standards / guidance statements, but also by drawing from Ashland's broad client base to show you where the industry is headed and how the industry is tackling different compliance hurdles. By leveraging our regulatory experience and exposure, Ashland gives your firm a broader picture of compliance, not just from a GIPS standpoint, but from a regulatory point of view as well.
Our goal in the pre-verification is to assist your firm in building the framework and drawing the roadmap to your firm’s claim of compliance.
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2.
GIPS Verification
The primary purpose of verification is to establish that a firm claiming compliance with GIPS has adhered to the Standards. Verification is the review of an investment management firm’s processes and procedures by an independent third party for compliance with the GIPS standards.
Verification tests:
- Whether the firm has complied with all the composite construction requirements of the GIPS standards on a firm-wide basis, and
- Whether the firm’s processes and procedures are designed to calculate and present performance results in compliance with the GIPS standards.
Third-party verification brings credibility to the claim of compliance and supports the overall guiding principles of full disclosure and fair representation of investment performance. Many firms have also found that consultants and some institutional investors require a firm to be GIPS verified before moving forward in manager searches.
Verification is strongly encouraged by the Standards and at some future date is expected to become mandatory for firms claiming compliance.
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3.
Performance Examination
Separate from a firm-wide verification, a firm may choose to have a more extensive, specifically focused performance examination (or audit) of a specific composite track record.
A performance examination tests:
- Whether the firm has constructed and calculated the composite in compliance with the GIPS standards, and
- Whether the firm presents the composite in compliance with the GIPS standards.
A firm cannot make any claim that a particular composite has been audited unless a performance examination has been completed. A performance examination can only be conducted by a verifier after or in conjunction with a firm-wide verification.
A firm cannot state that a particular composite has been "GIPS verified" or “Level II verified” or make any similar claim.