The industry standard report for defining strategy, structure and management is the investment policy statement. These statements may be useful for setting out the parameters of a portfolio to be run for a given risk and a given return structure or investment style. However, they are not generally useful where portfolios are to be constructed to meet financial needs over time.

If the providers of such reports were actually constructing portfolios to meet financial needs both at a point in time and over time, then their reporting would be naturally limited by the IPS statement. As such, the standard industry investment policy statement is often a good indication of the limitations of the service being provided. Not all investment policy statements are weak and inappropriate.