Q & A Database

The GIPS Standards Q&A database contains questions and answers (Q&As) on various searchable topics that provide additional interpretation on an issue. Q&As are considered to be authoritative guidance and must be followed in order to claim compliance with the GIPS standards.

Content from prior Q&As was included in the GIPS Standards Handbook as much as possible and many Q&As were archived. Change the Status drop-down filter to "Archived" to see the archived Q&As.

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Effective

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1 Result

Archived

Effective: 1 February, 2013 - 31 December, 2019

Categories: Fundamentals of Compliance

Source: GIPS Executive Committee

Firms must make every reasonable effort to provide a compliant presentation to all prospective clients. We maintain all of our compliant presentations on our website. Instead of providing the appropriate client presentation in our pitch books, can we instead direct the prospective client to obtain the compliant presentation on our website?

No. A firm must take action to ensure that each prospective client receives a compliant presentation. A firm should establish policies and procedures for tracking which compliant presentation(s) were provided to which prospective clients and when. Once a firm has provided a compliant presentation to a prospective client, the firm must provide an updated compliant presentation at least once every 12 months.

It is the firm’s obligation to provide a compliant presentation to prospective clients. Posting a compliant presentation on the firm’s website and directing the prospective client to obtain the compliant presentation from the website would require the prospective client to initiate the retrieval of information versus the firm disseminating the information and as such would not satisfy this requirement. However, the firm may provide the compliant presentation electronically. The firm may include the compliant presentation as an attachment to an e-mail or on a CD or flash drive provided to the prospective client.