03 · The IC Pack, in Twelve Pages
A committee pack kept to twelve pages, every cycle. One page for the family map, one for the season, two for the cash and the FX, three for the lines in motion, two for the managers and counterparties under review, two for the policy changes on the table, and one for the decisions the committee has to make.
The trigger,
in plain words.
Used at every investment committee cycle on a retained operating mandate. The format is the contract: the committee does not read more than twelve pages, so the desk does not write more than twelve.
The artefacts
the desk writes.
- A consistent page-by-page template that the desk fills each cycle.
- The same one or two charts in the same place, so the committee reads the pattern rather than the page.
- A short list of decisions for the committee, written in the affirmative.
- A pack the new committee member can read on the train and walk into the meeting prepared.
The shape of
the working document.
Twelve pages, twelve panels. Each cell is labelled with the page it maps to in the deliverable. The page-by-page reading sits below the schematic.
Page 1
Mandate, Cycle, and Decisions for the Committee
Page 2
The Family Map and the Reporting Structure
Page 3
The Season: Macro Frame and Operating Posture
Page 4
Cash and Liquidity (Reporting and Operating)
Page 5
FX Position and the Corridor Read
Page 6
Lines in Motion: Concentration, Drift, and Contribution
Page 7
Managers and Counterparties Under Review
Page 8
Policy Changes on the Table
Page 9
Risk Register and Open Waivers
Page 10
Decisions the Committee Is Asked to Sign
Page 11
Calendar, Cadence, and the Pack for Next Cycle
Page 12
Signatures and the Cycle Close-Out
What each
of the twelve pages carries.
The pack is fixed at twelve pages, every cycle. The page count is the contract. The table below is what each page contains, in the order the committee reads it. No figure is invented; the names of the lines, the counterparties, and the jurisdictions are written on retained mandates.
- Page 01
Mandate, Cycle, and Decisions for the Committee
The mandate in full, the cycle being closed out, and the short list of decisions the committee is being asked to sign. The committee reads the rest of the pack against this page.
- Page 02
The Family Map and the Reporting Structure
Vehicles, custodians, and counterparties in one diagram. The reporting structure of the household and the office, in the same place, so the committee sees the room the pack is read against.
- Page 03
The Season: Macro Frame and Operating Posture
The macro frame the desk is operating under, and the operating posture the pack is written against. Short by design. A longer view is reserved for the journal, not the committee.
- Page 04
Cash and Liquidity (Reporting and Operating)
Cash across the reporting currencies and the operating currencies, with the placement ladder and the short-dated credit lines on the same page. The chart is in the same place, every cycle.
- Page 05
FX Position and the Corridor Read
Net exposure by currency, against the corridors drawn in the Treasury Corridor Map. A single chart, a single paragraph, and the trigger thresholds that the committee has reserved to itself.
- Page 06
Lines in Motion: Concentration, Drift, and Contribution
The lines the desk is operating in, with concentration, drift from the bands, and contribution to the cycle. The page is split into three so the committee reads the pattern, not the noise.
- Page 07
Managers and Counterparties Under Review
Every manager and counterparty the desk is reviewing this cycle, with the read in one line and the decision the committee is being asked to confirm or refuse.
- Page 08
Policy Changes on the Table
The policy changes the desk is putting in front of the committee, in the affirmative. Two pages, separated from the lines so the committee reads the policy changes on their own.
- Page 09
Risk Register and Open Waivers
The open items on the family risk register, with the waiver status of each, the date the waiver was issued, and the date it is to be revisited. Nothing here is unsigned for more than twelve months.
- Page 10
Decisions the Committee Is Asked to Sign
The decisions the committee is being asked to sign, written in the affirmative, with the authority, the deadline, and the room in the programme that owns the follow through.
- Page 11
Calendar, Cadence, and the Pack for Next Cycle
The calendar for the next cycle, the cadence of the working sessions in between, and the read on what the next pack is likely to carry. The committee reads the calendar first, so the rest of the year is visible.
- Page 12
Signatures and the Cycle Close-Out
The signed cycle close-out. The pack is signed page by page, against the decisions on page ten, regardless of whether anything has changed. A quiet cycle is still a signature.
The pack is
deliberately narrow.
The twelve-page discipline is what makes the pack useful. The committee reads the pattern, not the page. Five things the pack is not, by design.
- A performance attribution report. The pack names the contribution of the lines, not the alpha of the managers.
- A market commentary. The macro frame is on page three, in one paragraph, and no longer.
- A slide deck. The pack is a bound document, twelve pages, signed. Slides live in the working sessions, not in the cycle.
- A research feed. The pack cites the journal where it cites at all. The desk does not reproduce its own research inside the cycle.
- An appendix. The pack is the document. Anything that would live in an appendix is held back, or belongs in the mandate brief or the treasury policy.
See the pack
read as a document.
The sample surface is the public opening of an IC Pack, written off the same framework. The cover, the table of contents, the opening section in full, and the redaction frames where the supporting charts and the manager and counterparty review sit on retained mandates.
If this framework
is the next room,
We maintain a small number of retained mandates and open new mandates selectively. Write to the private office. We reply with care, and without obligation.
For how the framework is run on a mandate, see the practice.