Reader objective
Create a reviewable record for approval, rejection, and ongoing monitoring.
Decision header
- Exact instrument, token, contract, protocol, market, and chain
- Research assessment; firm-shelf status; model-client eligibility; advisor selection
- Reviewer, approval date, next review, and version
- Actual household and account eligibility, intended purpose, client-specific constraints, and advisor-selected amount
Evidence body
- Economic exposure and return source
- Legal claim, issuer, redemption, and eligibility
- Asset, protocol, chain, oracle, bridge, and custody dependencies
- Fees, liquidity, valuation, tax, and operational workflow
- Incidents, counterevidence, unresolved questions, and source archive
Review conditions
Review conditions are observable facts that reopen a research assessment, shelf decision, eligibility finding, or advisor decision: an exploit above a threshold, admin change, new collateral class, liquidity floor, depeg duration, shortened timelock, regulatory restriction, issuer change, or missed disclosure. Define the threshold, affected layer, and data source when the condition is adopted.
Corrections are part of the product
Never silently rewrite the prior decision. Supersede it. State what the earlier version claimed, why it was incomplete or wrong, what evidence changed, and how the relevant assessment, policy, eligibility, selection, or limit changed. A visible correction improves the record because it demonstrates process rather than hindsight.
The format, in use
Every element above exists in public, filled in. Take the BUIDL memo: a favorable-with-conditions research assessment, separate model-client ineligibility, supported by qualified-purchaser eligibility, a $5M individual minimum, wallet whitelisting, plus a version number, a review date, a scheduled next review, and the reopen condition written down at decision time: revisit immediately if a retail or accredited share class ships. One page. A regulator, a client, or a colleague reading it two years from now can see exactly what was decided, on what facts, and what would change it.
Every adverse memo in the research files follows the same format, and so does every other current assessment, published in full in the Ketju Register. The discipline is keeping research, firm shelf, client eligibility, and advisor selection separate.
Primary and reference sources
- Investment Management — Investment Advisers · U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission