Fiduciary Assessments help Instill confidence

Are you feeling the pressure of managing institutional or retirement funds? Do you have to answer to a variety of stakeholders? Are prospective donors or investors asking tough questions about where funds go and how they are managed? Is your retirement plan committee struggling with making prudent investment decisions?

Any organization's leaders can claim they practice good fiscal management, but interested parties want reassurance. More and more these days that reassurance comes in the form of third-party fiduciary assessments and the opportunity for certification. These assessments can help instill confidence for parties who have an interest in a business or organization and are concerned about their investment process and ongoing fiduciary liability.  

This assessment provides evidence of how well an investment steward meets the Global Fiduciary Standard of Excellence as defined by the Prudent Practices for Investment Stewards Handbook. 

The Hardy|Reed Assessment of Fiduciary Performance provides evidence of how well an investment steward meets the Global Fiduciary Standard of Excellence as defined by the Prudent Practices for Investment Stewards Handbook.* The Retirement Plan Services Division completes retirement plan assessments for organizational conformity with the Global Standards of Fiduciary Excellence as established by the Center for Fiduciary Studies. Deliverables include:

Review of Documents

To include but not limited to, an Investment Policy Statement, trust document, service provider agreements.

Identification of Applicable Laws

UPIA - Uniform Prudent Investor Act
UMIFA - Uniform Management of Institutional Funds Act
UTC -Uniform Trust Code
ERISA - Employee Retirement Income Security Act

Identification of Fiduciaries

Identification of named and deemed fiduciaries and their roles and responsibilities.

Review of Fiduciary Processes

Review of goals and objectives, the investment policy, fiduciary acknowledgment letters, the conflict of interest policy, the Investment Committee bylaws, the due-diligence process for selecting and monitoring investment managers, the monitoring procedures for service providers, the spending policy and equilibrium spending rate.

Investment Fee Study and Benchmarking Report

Identification of fees, who pays them and who receives them.

Asset Allocation Study

Determine appropriateness of asset allocation compared to investment goals stated in the Investment Policy Statement and its adherence to Modern Portfolio Theory.

Investment Monitoring Report

Based on the criteria of the Investment Policy Statement, including watch-list criteria, peer analysis, and index analysis.