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Quarterly portfolio review

What we do every quarter, and why it matters to you.

Four times a year, every fund in your portfolio is assessed against a governed universe of around 7,000 funds and investment solutions. Not summaries. Not headlines. A systematic, documented review of each position. What it is actually doing for you.

The five dimensions

Every fund is scored across five things

Each dimension answers a specific question about how your fund is behaving. Click any to find out what we're actually measuring and why it matters.

01

Return efficiency

How much return per unit of risk taken

02

Drawdown & recovery

How it behaves when markets fall

03

Gain/loss balance

Whether good months outweigh bad ones

04

Cost efficiency

Whether the charges are justified

05

Relative return

How it compares to true peers

See it in action

Watch a fund being scored

This is what the quarterly assessment looks like for a single fund. Each dimension is assessed in turn, a score is assigned, and the overall result builds up in real time. Press Run to see it happen.

Meridian Balanced Growth Illustrative example

Overall score

Awaiting assessment

Return efficiency

How much return per unit of risk

Drawdown & recovery

Behaviour when markets fall

Gain/loss balance

Good months vs bad months

Cost efficiency

Whether charges are justified

Relative return

Performance vs true peers

187 funds in this peer group

Illustrative only. Fund names, scores, and rankings are fictional examples used to demonstrate the scoring process. Not based on any real client portfolio or fund data.

What this means for you

You don't wait until something goes wrong to find out

Most fund reviews happen after performance has already disappointed. Ours is designed to surface early warning signals about changes in how a fund is behaving, before they show up in your statement.

Reviewed four times a year

Every position is assessed on a fixed quarterly cycle, regardless of whether markets are quiet or volatile. The review happens on schedule, not on sentiment.

Scored against the full market

We compare each fund against a governed universe of around 7,000 funds and investment solutions. Not just others you hold, and not against a handful cherry-picked for the comparison. The universe is defined, documented, and consistently applied.

Every decision is documented

Where professional judgement leads to a different conclusion than the model output, that decision is recorded with a rationale and a review date. Nothing is silently changed.

You hear from me when it matters

If a fund reaches a concern threshold, you don't wait until your annual review. That trigger is defined in advance, not decided after the fact.

The process

What actually happens each quarter

The review follows a fixed sequence. Each step has a defined output, and the whole thing produces a dated, documented record. Not a set of impressions.

01

Universe filtered

Every fund available in the relevant market is pulled from our data source. No pre-selection, no shortlisting at this stage. The universe is as wide as it can be before any assessment begins.

02

Funds grouped by risk

Each fund is placed in the right risk band before comparison. We use a continuous risk scale validated against regulatory standards. Funds are compared against genuinely comparable peers, not against the peer group each manager has chosen to present themselves against.

03

Scoring model runs

Each fund is scored across the five dimensions. The score reflects how it ranks within its peer group. A score of 75 means it sits in the top quarter of comparable funds on a weighted combination of the five measures. The model is a diagnostic tool. It does not make decisions.

04

Adviser review and judgement applied

The scored output is reviewed by me. Where a fund's score has changed, I consider whether that reflects something structurally important or is consistent with its investment style. A value fund underperforming in a growth-led market tells a different story than a fund whose process has changed. That distinction is a matter of professional judgement, and it is documented.

05

Record filed

The full scored output, along with any override decisions and their rationale, is retained as a dated audit record. This is the evidence that the review actually happened and what it concluded. Not a summary produced after the fact.

The adviser who has a documented, evidenced, consistent process can explain what they own and why they own it. The adviser who selected on recent performance cannot.

Matt Marsden IFA
Decem Wealth
FCA Registered · 1016755