Tag Archive for: GIPS Standards

From Team Performance to Investment Returns: Ted Lasso and GIPS Standards

What do the GIPS Standards and Ted Lasso have in common?

The third season of Ted Lasso began in March 2023. For those that have not seen the show, it is about a small-time college football coach from Kansas named Ted Lasso, who is unexpectedly hired to coach a struggling English Premier League soccer team, AFC Richmond, despite knowing very little about soccer. While it may seem that Ted Lasso and the Global Investment Performance Standards (GIPS®) have nothing in common, we invite anyone working with GIPS compliance to explore the important similarities below and feel as good about what they bring to work as what Ted brings to his coaching.

At its core, Ted Lasso is about ethics, transparency, teamwork, and continuous improvement, and we are using the GIPS Standards framework to help clients tackle similar challenges every day.

Ethics: Ted and the GIPS Standards focus on ethics. Ted Lasso is known for his strong moral compass and commitment to doing what is right. Similarly, the GIPS Standards require investment managers to adhere to a strict code of ethics when reporting performance data, ensuring that they are not misrepresenting their results or misleading their clients. Choosing to be ethical is more than just following the rules; it’s the foundation for all of the decisions that come after.

Transparency: In the show, Ted is known for his open and honest communication style, an understated superpower that helps to build trust and rapport with his team. The GIPS Standards provide a powerful framework for investment managers to provide transparent and accurate performance data to their clients to build trust and confidence in their investment strategies.

Teamwork: Of course, a soccer show is about teamwork, but so is GIPS compliance. It applies to the whole firm, not just the back office or the front office, and the best GIPS compliance teams have representatives from executive leadership, compliance, operations, technology, marketing, and portfolio management.

Continuous Improvement: Ted is constantly looking for ways to improve himself and his team, even when things are going well, just as the GIPS Standards require investment managers to regularly review their performance reporting processes and make changes as needed to ensure they are meeting the highest standards of accuracy and transparency.

And the list goes on….

Attention to Detail: Both Ted Lasso and the GIPS Standards place a high value on attention to detail. Ted is known for his meticulous planning and attention to small details that can have a big impact on the success of his team. Anyone that’s worked with the GIPS standards knows compliance requires fiduciaries to pay close attention to the details, quarter after quarter, to ensure accuracy and consistency.

Standards of Excellence: Finally, both Ted Lasso and the GIPS Standards are focused on achieving high standards of excellence. In the show, Ted Lasso sets high expectations for himself and his team and is always striving to improve and achieve their goals. When the GIPS Standards were created, they were designed to provide the investment management industry a pathway to achieve the highest standards of accuracy, transparency, and ethical behavior for investment performance reporting, for firms (and now asset owners) to build credibility and trust with their clients and constituents.

While the connections between Ted Lasso and the GIPS Standards may seem tenuous at first, both share a commitment to excellence, ethics, transparency, teamwork, and continuous improvement. They also emphasize the importance of thinking long-term, paying attention to detail, and building trust through open and honest communication. Additionally, both have a strong focus on teamwork and collaboration, whether that’s between the characters in the show or between investment managers and their clients. Ultimately, these shared values and principles can help individuals and organizations achieve success in their respective domains, whether it’s on the soccer field or in the investment management industry.

Cascade Compliance has over 34 years of combined experience working with SEC Regulations, the GIPS standards, and performance. Our employees have worked with hundreds of firms in the U.S. and abroad. One of the best parts of working with clients is getting to share expertise and knowledge of best practices across the industry. Whether you are a client of ours or not, we are here to help you get better at what you do and answer any questions you may have. Contact us at connect@cascadecompliance.com.

2020 GIPS® Standards Q&As

This is a comprehensive list of Q&A’s released as part of the GIPS standards Newsletter, organized by subject matter.  As CFA Institute continues to add Q&As through the GIPS Standards Newsletter, we will continue to update this page.

GIPS 2010 Transition to GIPS 2020

Pooled Funds

Composite Management/Policies

Input Data and Portfolio Calculation

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MWRs vs. TWRs – Are 2020 GIPS Standard Changes a Better Fit for Your Firm?

With the 2020 edition of the GIPS standards, firms claiming compliance with the GIPS standards now have a choice of whether to use time-weighted returns (TWRs)  or money-weighted returns (MWRs).  This is fantastic news for the alternatives community. In the 2010 version of the GIPS standards, a series of since-inception MWRs was required for private equity funds,  but no other investment structure or strategy had the option to present MWRs without also showing a series of annual TWRs.

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2020 GIPS® Standards – Bridging the Fund vs. Composite Divide

Key Conceptfor Fund Managers

Firms managing only commingled funds often question the relevance of creating GIPS-compliant composites for pooled funds that are essentially already of asset-weighted, strategy specific “composites.” The 2020 GIPS standards added options that make GIPS compliance much more meaningful for managers of pooled funds, especially for firms with dozens of mutual funds and alternative investment strategies delivered in commingled fund vehicles.

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A 2020 GIPS Standards Game-Plan

First-Steps for Segregated Account Managers

Firms managing segregated accounts who claim compliance with the GIPS standards – and firms who currently include pooled funds in composites, present TWRs, and expect to continue doing that: this article is for you

Since the major rewrite of the GIPS standards was first announced, the focus has been on updates to make the GIPS standards more relevant to different types of discretionary asset managers.  For firms already claiming compliance, especially managers of segregated accounts, changes were expected to be minor… and they are.

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GIPS® Standards Do’s & Don’ts

GIPS® Standards Do’s and Don’ts

First Quarter 2019 is almost half over.  Now is a great time for an in-depth review and refresh of firm-wide GIPS standards policies and procedures, especially for firms on an annual verification cycle.

Here’s a list of Do’s and Don’ts to help with those P&P reviews and final polishing of GIPS Composite Reports.

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