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Our Principles

The operating rules applied to every allocation decision.

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Five rules, applied in the order listed, to every candidate holding.

Preservation first

A position is sized so that being wrong about it does not change the family's circumstances.

Underwrite cash flow

Holdings are selected on current cash flow. Earnings visible today take priority over projected growth.

No consensus bias

Positions are not chosen for market visibility. Widely held assets are tested against the office's own valuation threshold.

Exit market

Assets are selected for their liquidity in a downturn. Durable businesses, prime property and investment-grade credit retain buyers across cycles.

Simplicity

A holding must be explainable in one paragraph. Structures that cannot be explained are not held.

Principles Applied

Portfolio

Three holdings that cleared all five tests.

Australian Quality Equities Portfolio
Equities

Australian Quality Equities Portfolio

A concentrated book of listed Australian businesses selected on durable earnings and balance sheet strength.

Core holding since 2023View →
Fixed Income & Liquidity Reserve
Credit

Fixed Income & Liquidity Reserve

Short-dated government and bank paper sized to fund twelve months of obligations without forced selling.

Rolling mandateView →
International Quality Equities
Equities

International Quality Equities

A small number of offshore businesses held for currency diversification and exposure unavailable domestically.

Building since 2024View →
Our Principles

The five operating rules

How the rules are sequenced, what each excludes, and whether they change.

In order: sizing, then a cash flow test, then a check against consensus positioning, then a check that a buyer exists in a downturn, then a simplicity test.

A candidate must clear all five. Failing any one is sufficient to decline.

Assets whose value rests on a terminal narrative rather than current production: pre-revenue businesses and assets priced on a multiple of projected earnings.

Growth is not excluded, but it must be visible in current cash flow.

Consensus bias is holding what is widely held. The office writes its valuation threshold before reviewing market positioning.

Widely held assets are then reviewed against that threshold.

A holder may need to sell without choosing to. Assets with buyers across cycles keep the timing of a sale with the office rather than the market.

Illiquid assets are held only where the cash flow means a sale is unlikely to be required.

Each position has a written thesis. If the thesis cannot be maintained in a paragraph, or grows longer each year, the position is reviewed.

A thesis that requires ongoing defence is treated as incompletely understood.

They are reviewed as part of the annual Investment Policy Statement process and amended only for a structural reason, not in response to a market cycle.

They are not relaxed during a drawdown.