GIPS^® Compliance Services

The Global Investment Performance Standards (GIPS^®) are a set of voluntary, ethical principles that guide investment firms on how to calculate and present their investment performance. Firms across the industry are challenged not only by becoming GIPS compliant but also by maintaining such compliance. ACA Performance Services can assist your firm with overcoming these challenges by helping build and improve upon your framework for compliance as well as by providing firm-wide verifications and performance examinations.

Pre-Compliance Consulting

ACA Performance Services assists firms with developing the roadmap and building the framework to claim GIPS compliance. Our pre-compliance consulting addresses:

calculation methodologies;
policy and procedures development;
composite membership guidelines; and
a thorough review of your marketing and advertising disclosures.

Firm-Wide GIPS Compliance Verification

ACA Performance Services’ independent GIPS compliance verifications are designed to assess whether your firm is adhering to the GIPS standards. ACA’s firm-wide verification services will confirm:

Whether your firm has complied with all the composite-construction requirements of the GIPS standards on a firm-wide basis; and
Whether your firm’s processes and procedures are designed to calculate and present performance results in compliance with the GIPS standards.

Third-party verification brings credibility to the claim of compliance and supports the overall guiding principles of full disclosure and fair representation of investment performance. Many asset managers find that consultants and institutional investors require GIPS-compliant firms to be verified before moving forward in any searches.

Performance Examinations

ACA Performance Services provides comprehensive, focused performance examinations of specific composite track records. Our examinations could include:

Whether composite calculations are in compliance with the GIPS standards; and
Whether the composite’s compliant presentation includes all of the required statistics and disclosures of the GIPS standards.

A firm cannot claim that a particular composite has been examined unless a performance examination has been completed. A performance examination can only be conducted by a verifier after, or in conjunction with, a firm-wide verification.