21 Jul Investment Management Committee Board Meetings
How to make light work of recording your investment management committee board meetings when a worthy record of them can take hours to write up, but necessary to adhere to compliance rules.
Overview
With the exponential upward trend in the investment management committee board meetings and the mandatory recording of meeting notes comes the necessary dedication of time to this oftentimes arduous administrative task.
The problem is that many meetings are long, especially the quarterly board meetings, and to make a worthy record of them can take anything from two times to ten times the meeting’s length.
Why are records of these investment management committees so important?
Investment management committee board meetings are meetings of numerous senior individuals within a company. Their role is to be thoroughly objective in meeting their objectives. An investment committee is responsible for creating a company’s investment strategy, conducting financial and company performance reviews. Also, recording and ongoing monitoring of company investment performance, amongst other things, and to ensure implementation of the above, and continuous development thereafter. Reference documents must be available for members to re-visit what was discussed. And, for new members to be able to pick up and run with. And, importantly in today’s regulation-focused world, to evidence strict adherence to compliance rules.
Unprecedented times, such as those recently, are also a reason why capturing meeting content is vital
It’s not for nostalgia. Seismic change has happened in many a company in 2020, from the exodus of workers from offices to mass furloughing of staff, and, of course, in financial houses and asset management firms, big shifts in investment policy in response to the effects of COVID-19 on the economy and clients’ investments.
Thus, the landscape of investment management committee board meetings in recent months will have looked very different than at any point in the last decade or more, possibly since before the Global Financial Crisis. We are all navigating these stormy waters as best we can, and financial firms in particular will have to be accountable for every action they have taken during this time in the months and years to come. They need to justify the negatives and explain the positives. Demonstrating from both what has been learned and how one can plan for a similar global event in the future. As a result, the better your archive of records, meeting notes, transcripts, etc from this time, the more you will learn, both from what went wrong and what went right.
Making sure you capture the right content
All the content discussed at investment management committee board meetings is highly important and sensitive data. Capturing all of it concisely and securely is paramount. This is incredibly difficult if you are relying on one, say, one support staff member taking notes as you go. Or use a voice recognition software to attempt to capture the meeting in written form live.
When you have six, seven or more competing voices in an environment like this, the latter can lead to some highly amusing, yet (we’re betting) equally frustrating results. There is no denying the advancement of AI and speech-to-text technology. However, it lacks a certain sophistication that you can still only achieve from intelligent, human transcription. Ironically, in this situation, when one has two or three hours’ worth of meeting content to sift through, to correct any mishears, homophones and to make other potentially extensive grammar alterations, the issue of the time it takes to make these records hasn’t been solved; rather, the goalposts have merely been shifted. The time is now spent correcting these errors and filling in any gaps in the data.
Full audio recordings of meetings are great to have
In this age of virtual meetings, the ability of videoconferencing software to record both video and audio automatically has been efficient and a blessing for many. However, as with any meeting that handles confidential client or company-specific data, security, of course, is an issue, as you are effectively giving the program you are using permission to ‘access your meeting’ and listen to everything that’s being said. More traditional methods of recording meetings, such as via a Dictaphone or recording on your smartphone using the voice recorder, are safer. But in both instances, you are left with hours of recordings to listen to and summarise. In some cases, transcribed in full to create appropriate regulatory records from a compliance perspective. In other words, the recording itself only gets you halfway there.
The best ways of capturing everything you need
Any meeting should have a clear agenda, including investment management committee meetings. Without an agenda, a clear, coherent and compliant record is harder to obtain. Committee meetings may not always cover the same content. Members will come and go or take on additional duties. However, the premise for each meeting is to establish a definitive set of objectives. The nature of senior management attendance means that there will be several ‘leads’. However, if executed well, this will only strengthen the cohesiveness of the meeting. This is because issues are discrete, with the key specialist guiding in their own area.
There is a direct correlation between the quality of a meeting and the quality of the resulting record
Investment committee meetings have the ability to be some of the best, in-depth internal meetings a financial company can have. However, as with any meeting involving numerous speakers, if a live audio recording is made, however that may be executed, participants should always take care to speak as clearly as possible and to not talk over fellow colleagues or members where at all possible. This is particularly pertinent in a virtual meeting setting, where it’s not as easy to play off one another’s body language. Or to chip quickly with an, ‘I’m sorry, could you repeat that, please – I didn’t hear you’.
What to do with your recordings from your investment committee board meetings?
Administrative or support staff usually turn these spoken words into written words to create a formal record. However, the role these employees play within a company has changed over the years. They are finding themselves without the time to complete such tasks; less tedious and time-consuming work is expected of them these days.
Using an ISO-accredited, reliable and secure transcription service like VoiceNotes is one of the best ways, if not the best way, of outsourcing this work. We are trained and highly experienced audio transcriptionists and proofreaders with the sharpest of ears and eyes that never miss a typo or a missing piece of punctuation. VoiceNotes cares about more than just getting the words on the page. We ensure pinpoint accuracy and consistency, and we fact-check every name, every company, every fund, and anything else that needs verifying.
We have over a decade’s experience of producing exactly the sort of record you’re after – we have thousands of hours of meeting notes and transcripts to our name – and we can demonstrate an impressive track record of clients over this time.
As this is our raison d’être, we can be your answer from a time management point of view. We can have a full two-to-three-hour meeting transcript with you, fully proofed, within 48 hours (two business days), or a summary call report dictated post-meeting back with you within the same business day.
Agenda templates
The minimum information that we feel should be captured to meet MiFID II and SM&CR meetings are:
- Identity of the attendees.
- Initiator of the meeting.
- Date and time of the meeting.
- Location of the meeting.
- Relevant information about the client order, including the price, volume. The type and when it shall be transmitted/executed.
- AOB.
Quotes from a couple of our clients
“The service has enabled me, and the other directors, to maximise our time in doing file notes, doing internal memos. And also being able to send emails out quickly. It’s been invaluable in growing our business, and you guys always deliver the notes on time. So thank you very much.” – Robin Bates, Oakhouse Financial Services
“VoiceNotes saved me the 3-4 hours a week that I used to spend writing up client meetings and calls – thoroughly recommend them.” – Alex Popplewell, ex-MD BlackRock/MD Hiddensee Financial
Click here for more testimonials from our financial sector clients.
How to use VoiceNotes for investment committee meetings?
We can process pre-recorded audio files, or alternatively, you can use our meeting note service to dictate comprehensive summary notes after any important meeting, board or otherwise. All dictations/recordings are processed via our bespoke, secure system.
Try us for FREE (limitations apply) to see how we may be able to help you! Get in touch today for a personal, bespoke service to suit your needs. Your investment management committee board meetings will be easier from now on!
Our rate card
For the cost of transcription, please click here.
Some further articles:
Tips for recording board meetings
Fintech, hedge funds and online meetings
For details on how to capture minutes from online meetings for regulatory purposes with VoiceNotes.
‘From Regulation To Recession: The storm of 2018-2020 for financial services
For testimonials from firms who use VoiceNotes transcription services.
For transcribing Zoom meetings.
Please get in touch with any questions or to start your FREE trial – info@voicenotes.co.uk / 0207 117 0066.
