The recommendation
What is recommended, by whom, on what date, and what it would have the principal actually do.
For advisors whose principal makes the decision
You recommend. Someone else decides. The record has to show which was which.
Bring the principal's question, the alternatives reasonably available, the material risks attaching to each, and your own reservations into one revisable Decision Update. The principal decides. The record is what has to show it.
Request accessAccess is limited. A person reviews every request.
The decision problem
An advisor who was right and cannot show the basis is in the same position as an advisor who was wrong.
The protection is a negative. Proof that a recommendation was made, that the alternatives and their material risks were put alongside it, and that the principal chose otherwise. Today that lives in a confirming email, a memo to file, and a sentence beginning with the words you have instructed us to proceed notwithstanding our recommendation. It is judged later against the facts as they stood on the day, which means it exists only if it was made on the day.
- 01
What the advisor recommends
One recommendation, attributable to a named person on a date, separated from the analysis that produced it. A remark in a meeting is not a recommendation, and the file should never be able to read it as one.
- 02
What the principal is shown
The alternatives reasonably available, the material risks of each, and any reservation about scope or evidence, put in front of the principal before the choice rather than reconstructed after it.
- 03
What the principal decides
Accepted, modified, or declined, dated and attributed. An instruction to proceed against the recommendation is recorded as the principal's instruction, in the principal's terms, and not as the advisor's advice.
- 04
What the file says a year later
The basis as it stood on the day, the conflict disclosed as it actually exists rather than as one that might arise, the consent that came back, and the point at which the scope changed. Read later, none of that can be supplied by hindsight.
The reviewable artifact
A Decision Update that records who recommended and who decided
Advisory work has an authorship problem before it has an evidence problem. Two people are in the record and only one of them decides, so the artifact has to keep them apart.
Alternatives and risks
The courses reasonably available, what each would cost, and the reservations about scope or evidence that were disclosed at the time.
Conflicts and consent
The interest disclosed as it actually exists rather than as one that may arise, and whether the principal's consent came back.
The principal's decision
Accepted, modified, or declined against advice, dated, attributed, and stated in the principal's own terms.
Example of a held verdict. Not a customer record.
Held. No recommendation issues while the constraint is unconfirmed.
Missing proof
- The liquidity requirement that eliminates two of the three structures has been modelled and never confirmed by the principal, and it is not ours to assume.
- The conflict disclosure on the affiliated manager went out and the principal's consent has not come back in writing.
- Counsel has not read the distribution provision, so whether the recommendation sits inside the trustee's authority is unknown.
A held verdict is a refusal to settle with the missing proof named. It is the state most tools cannot represent, and it is what makes a Decision Update worth reading when the answer is not ready.
What this does not become
It does not advise, does not decide, and does not become your file of record. It sends no confirming letter and holds no engagement terms. What it holds is the basis as it stood on the day, with the recommendation and the decision attributed to two different people.
What to bring: Bring the principal's question, the material your engagement covers, the alternatives already on the table, and the reservations you have not yet put in writing. Share only what your engagement and your confidentiality obligations permit.
Access
Start an account, or request access to the cohort.
Request access for a bounded cohort keeping the recommendation, the alternatives shown, and the principal's decision attributable to the people who made them.
An account is the door to the product as it stands today. Availability of the limited alpha is a separate question: a request is reviewed by a person and does not grant admission, an invitation, an account, a Room, entitlement, or payment access.