Portfolio
Portfolio
A partnership structured for continuity, and a reserve sized against obligations.
Positions are sized so that a severe decade does not change the family's circumstances.
Holdings must be describable in one sentence. Leveraged structures are not held.
Liquid reserves of twelve months or more are maintained and measured against obligations.
No soft commissions, referral fees or product rebates are accepted. External managers are paid on assets under management only. Custody sits with an independent custodian.
Positions are reviewed annually against the thesis recorded at purchase.
The team is small, with no sales function and no external investor base.
A partnership structured for continuity, and a reserve sized against obligations.
Preservation first — a position is sized and stress-tested before it is discussed in terms of outcome.
Own what we understand — the one-paragraph thesis is written before purchase.
Cash as a holding — the liquidity reserve is measured monthly against obligations.
Cost discipline — fees are disclosed line by line; rebates and commissions are declined.
Generational horizon — annual reviews test the thesis rather than the price.
What each of these rules out in practice.
Structures whose outcome depends on a forecast being right: speculative growth, leveraged property, business models dependent on repeated capital raising, and instruments whose liquidity disappears in a downturn.
These are excluded because the downside is unrecoverable.
The holding must be described in one paragraph: what the asset produces, who pays for it, and what would prove the thesis wrong. If that paragraph cannot be written, the holding is not taken.
Unexplained complexity is treated as unidentified risk.
A rebate or commission aligns the adviser's income with the product provider rather than the owner, and does not appear in the fee schedule.
External managers are paid on assets under management only. Every fee is disclosed in the quarterly record.
Selection starts with terms: fee structure, mandate clarity, and whether the manager will accept the constraints set. Outcomes are then reviewed against the family's objectives.
Managers are not reviewed against a peer universe or benchmark.
Cost is capital that is not invested, and larger teams generate activity that may not add value.
Written policy, outsourced independent functions and no sales or investor relations function keep costs and incentives aligned with the family.
Notes on cost discipline, capital preservation and the governance of family capital.
