01 · The Season Diagnostic
A two-to-three week read of the family book that produces a single document the principal and the desk can both pick up a year later and still understand. We map what is held, how it is held, where the policy and the practice diverge, and what the next season needs from the office.
The trigger,
in plain words.
At the start of a new mandate, after a structural life event, or when the existing policy and the existing practice have visibly diverged. Most often the first engagement on a relationship.
The artefacts
the desk writes.
- A one-page family map: vehicles, custodians, and counterparties in one diagram.
- A side-by-side reading of the current investment policy statement against what the portfolio actually does.
- A written list of open questions for the principal, the counsel, and the auditor.
- A signed letter to the principal that names what we found, what we did not find, and what we recommend next.
The shape of
the working document.
A schematic the desk draws before writing. Each cell is labelled with the section or page number it maps to in the deliverable.
- 01
A one-page family map: vehicles, custodians, and counterparties in one diagram.
- 02
A side-by-side reading of the current investment policy statement against what the portfolio actually does.
- 03
A written list of open questions for the principal, the counsel, and the auditor.
- 04
A signed letter to the principal that names what we found, what we did not find, and what we recommend next.
The rooms of
the first read.
The diagnostic is a structured read of the family book before the desk accepts the work. The list below is what the desk brings into the room, in the order the season is read. The posture is mandate-specific; the rooms keep the reading disciplined.
- Room 01
The season
The macro and operating context the office is moving through. The desk records the conditions outside the family book and the conditions inside it: liquidity needs, obligations, decision tempo, structural changes, and the question the next season is asking of the office.
- Room 02
The family map
Who is at the table, who is silent, and who owns each decision. The map places the principal, the family, the existing advisors, counsel, and the auditor in relation to the work, with the authority and the missing voice named in writing.
- Room 03
The asset map
What sits where, across vehicles, accounts, custodians, managers, and counterparties. The desk reads the records against the map and marks the places where the paper trail is incomplete, with redactions where the underlying detail does not belong on the public surface.
- Room 04
The mandate-shape selection
The shape that fits the work after the reading is complete: Diagnose, Design, Structure, Build, Operate, or Oversee. The selection describes the work the desk can responsibly take on, not a product menu and not a promise about what comes next.
- Room 05
The deliverable list
The documents, conversations, decisions, and handoffs the principal would walk away with if the desk accepts the mandate. Each item is named in posture terms, with its owner and place in the season clear before the next room opens.
- Room 06
The go or no-go decision
A written close to the reading. The desk states what fits the practice, what does not, what needs an authorised specialist, and whether the next step is a Mandate Brief, a bounded referral, or a plain decline. The decline list is part of the diagnostic discipline.
Diagnose,
then write, then run.
The Season Diagnostic is the entry instrument. It is the first read of a family book, before the desk accepts the work, and it decides whether the season belongs in the practice. It can close with a go, a bounded referral, or a no-go. The decline list is not a conclusion added after the document; it is one of the decisions the document is there to make.
The Mandate Brief follows only if the desk accepts the engagement. It turns the diagnostic findings into the written shape of the work: the parties, the scope, the decision rights, the deliverables, and the cadence that the principal and the desk sign against. The brief is the accepted mandate in working form.
The IC Pack comes later, on the retained operating cadence. It is what the desk produces for the committee after the brief has set the authority and the work is running. The pack reads the current season, the lines in motion, and the decisions reserved to the committee. It is not another diagnostic and it does not reopen the entry decision each cycle.
The three live in sequence: diagnose the season, write the accepted mandate, then operate against the written record. A diagnostic without a brief can still end in a decline. A brief without the diagnostic loses the reason the work was accepted. An IC Pack without both has no mandate to read against.
The diagnostic is
where fit is made plain.
The desk uses the diagnostic to name the work it can take on, the work it should place with an authorised specialist, and the work it will decline. When the fit is sound, the next document is the Mandate Brief. Read the practice to see the six engagement shapes the decision can lead into.
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.