Monitor FAQs

The Enhance rating is a proprietary 1-5 score calculated against the portfolio's primary benchmark to summarise the risk-adjusted performance of each portfolio against the most relevant measure. It provides a quick, at-a-glance assessment that helps trustees understand how each portfolio is performing relative to its objectives without needing to wade through complex investment data. The rating is recalculated each quarter as part of the review process.

Onboarding is straightforward. We collect details of the investment portfolios you want us to monitor, including the investment managers or custodians involved, and then we do the heavy lifting. Our team establishes the necessary data feeds, configures your review templates and sets up your Connect access. We also assign you a dedicated Governance Manager who will guide you through the process and be your ongoing point of contact. Most trustees are up and running within a few weeks.

Action points are a key feature of every Monitor review. They are categorised as suitability, technical or administration issues and are designed to flag matters that require your attention or action with the relevant investment manager. Each action point is tracked within Connect from inception to completion, providing a clear audit trail that helps you demonstrate to your board, regulators or beneficiaries that you are actively managing your investment governance responsibilities. 

Yes, this is one of the most valued aspects of our service. Monitor reviews provide independently produced, auditable evidence that you are regularly monitoring your investment portfolios - a core trustee duty in most jurisdictions. Practice-level reviews aggregate all of this into management information that is ideal for board reporting. Many of our trust company clients use Monitor reviews as a cornerstone of their investment governance framework for regulatory and internal compliance purposes.

We can monitor investment portfolios denominated in any currency and managed under any investment strategy, including discretionary, advisory, execution-only, fund-of-fund and bespoke alternative portfolios. We are completely open architecture when it comes to the types of portfolios and investment managers we cover. If the investment manager or custodian can provide us with appropriate data, we can monitor the portfolio.

Monitor is delivered in three tiers: Tracker, Stats and Review, each building on the last. Tracker provides a dedicated Governance Manager, Connect access, data packs and summary analytics. Stats adds independent benchmarking, fuller return and risk statistics and the Enhance rating. Review adds review commentary, mandate compliance checks and action points, and is the fullest level of oversight. The right tier depends on the fiduciary risk each portfolio carries, and tiers can be adjusted portfolio by portfolio as circumstances change.

Monitor is delivered by Enhance Investment Reporting Limited, which is unregulated because investment reporting does not require a regulatory licence in Jersey. Monitor reviews are independent assessments of your portfolios, not financial advice, and Enhance Investment Reporting Limited does not provide investment advice, execute transactions or hold client assets or money. The service exists to give trustees the independent information and evidence they need to exercise their own judgement properly.

No, none at all. There are no peer group participation subscriptions, no research coverage fees and no referral arrangements. The fee paid by the trustee is the only revenue Enhance receives from a Monitor engagement, and we are happy to confirm this in writing as part of your selection diligence. It means every finding, rating and action point we produce is for one audience only: the trustee.

The Trustee Act 2000 sets out four investment duties that have become the reference point for trustee best practice worldwide: the statutory duty of care, the standard investment criteria of suitability and diversification, the duty to review, and the duty to take advice. Monitor was designed around them. Mandate compliance checks and allocation X-rays support the standard investment criteria, the consistent quarterly review cycle operationalises the duty to review, and tracked action points evidence that the duty of care is being discharged.

Five tests separate monitoring that protects trustees from monitoring that merely reports to them: independence from investment managers, mandate compliance checks with tracked action points, tiered oversight at portfolio, client and practice level, open access to data and integrations, and a named Governance Manager standing behind the reports. Each can be evidenced before appointment through written confirmations, sample reviews and platform demonstrations. Monitor was built to pass all five, and our Playbook on selecting a monitoring provider covers each test in detail.

Yes, this is one of the most valuable ways trust companies use the Monitor service. Your dedicated Governance Manager is a CISI-qualified investment professional who can attend Investment Committee meetings, present the independent monitoring results and provide context on managers, asset classes and the wider investment environment. That puts an independent, qualified investment voice on your side of the table, with no product to sell and no reliance on the investment managers under review.

The issue is surfaced rather than buried in prose. Every finding becomes a categorised action point (suitability, technical or administration) that flags what needs your attention and with which investment manager. Your Governance Manager will walk you through the findings. Each action point is then tracked in Connect from inception to completion, creating a date-stamped audit trail of what was identified, what was considered, what was decided, and when. The decision on what to do always remains with you as trustee.

Yes. Clients that fall outside the formal monitoring regime can be included on Connect as Exceptions. Your book of record is then complete across every client the trust company is responsible for, not only those covered by Monitor reviews. This completeness matters: it gives boards, auditors and regulators a single, global view of the practice and demonstrates that nothing has been overlooked.