An investment policy statement (IPS) is a must for all investors whether an individual managing a retirement portfolio or a university endowment. The IPS forces you to put your investment strategy in writing and commit to a disciplined investment plan. It serves as a blueprint and plan as well as a document to compare your results to. Without a good plan and a way to measure our progress we end up somewhere without knowing if thats where we wanted to end up.

A good investment policy statement should cover at least the following

   Investment Objective (Expected Returns)

   Risk Tolerance

   Allowable Investments

   Rebalancing Guidelines

   Any Unique Circumstances