Investment mandate

An investment mandate is the instruction and authority under which a manager runs a portfolio. In UK asset management, “mandate” often means the whole package: the agreement, the benchmark, the objectives and the guidelines. A segregated mandate is one client’s portfolio; a pooled fund’s limits sit in its prospectus instead.

Trustees in England and Wales who give a manager discretion must agree it in writing (Trustee Act 2000 s15). The agreement must require the manager to follow the trustees’ policy statement. They must then keep the arrangement under review and check whether the policy statement is being complied with (s22).

A breach of mandate happens when holdings or trades fall outside those bounds. The usual sequence is detection, notification to the client, remediation and a record. In Acclimetry, each mandate limit is a versioned rule linked to its clause; see breach of investment mandate.