A standard Investment strategy template can be a perfectly reasonable starting point for a simple fund with a conventional, diversified portfolio. The trouble comes when trustees treat the template as the finished product for a fund that is anything but simple. Certain features of a fund, a single dominant asset, unusual investments, complex membership, Demand a strategy that genuinely engages with the fund's circumstances rather than a fill-in-the-blanks form. Knowing when a template is no longer enough helps trustees avoid a document that looks compliant but does not actually do its job. This article identifies the trigger points.

What a template can and cannot do

A template provides structure: it prompts the trustees to address the matters the law requires, including the risk and return of investments, diversification, liquidity, the ability to meet liabilities, and whether to hold insurance for members. For a fund with a spread of mainstream assets, a well-drafted template that the trustees genuinely complete can be adequate.

What a template cannot do is think about the fund for the trustees. It offers generic wording and broad ranges, and if the trustees simply sign it without tailoring, it may say nothing meaningful about how this fund actually approaches its particular risks. The template is a scaffold, not a substitute for the trustees turning their minds to their own circumstances.

The question is therefore not whether a template is used, but whether the fund's circumstances demand more than the template supplies.

A single dominant asset

The clearest trigger is concentration. A fund that holds most of its value in one asset, such as a single property or a large parcel of one company's shares, cannot rely on boilerplate about diversification. The strategy needs to explain how the trustees have considered the concentration risk, and why they regard the fund's position as appropriate despite it.

This is exactly the situation auditors scrutinise. A template that lists wide asset-class ranges while the fund sits almost entirely in one asset does not address the real risk. A concentrated fund needs a strategy that confronts its concentration honestly, which a generic form rarely does on its own.

Borrowing and property

A fund with a limited recourse borrowing arrangement has added layers of risk, gearing, illiquidity and the interaction of Loan repayments with the fund's cash flow, that a standard template may not capture. Following the 2026 borrowing changes, a fund holding geared property also has to think about the fact that a sold property cannot be replaced with new residential gearing.

These features call for a strategy that addresses Liquidity and Cash Flow specifically: how the fund will meet loan repayments, pensions and expenses, and what happens if income falters. A template that does not grapple with the demands of a geared property leaves an important risk undocumented.

Unusual or complex investments

Certain investments push a fund beyond template territory. Unlisted assets, investments involving related parties, derivatives, and collectables or personal-use Assets each carry specific rules and risks. Collectables, for instance, are subject to detailed requirements around storage, insurance and use, and a strategy should reflect that these assets are held and managed appropriately.

Where a fund holds anything out of the ordinary, the strategy needs to show the trustees have considered the particular risks and requirements that asset brings. A standard template, written for mainstream portfolios, generally will not address these, so relying on it leaves gaps precisely where the compliance risk is highest.

Complex membership and phases

A fund's membership can also outgrow a template. Multiple members at different life stages, some accumulating and some drawing pensions, or members with very different balances and goals, create competing needs that a single generic strategy may not reconcile. A fund straddling accumulation and pension phases has both growth and income demands to balance.

In these cases the strategy may need to reflect how the trustees manage differing member circumstances, including liquidity to fund pensions alongside growth for younger members. The more varied the membership, the less a one-size-fits-all template fits, and the more the strategy needs to speak to the fund's actual composition.

Making the call

The practical test is whether the template, as completed, genuinely describes how this fund approaches its real risks. If the fund is simple and diversified, a well-completed template may suffice. If it has a dominant asset, borrowing, unusual investments or complex membership, the strategy almost certainly needs to go further and engage with those specifics, whether built from a template or not.

Trustees can document their own decisions, and an Accountant can help them articulate a tailored strategy, but recommending what the strategy should be is financial product advice that requires a licence. Where a fund's complexity calls for genuine investment recommendations, a licensed adviser is the right source. This article is general information only and is not advice about any particular fund's strategy.

The aim throughout is a strategy that actually fits the fund, because that is what both the law and the fund's own good governance require.

There is a useful discipline in periodically re-reading the strategy as if seeing it for the first time and asking a blunt question: does this document actually describe our fund, or could it describe anyone's? If the honest answer is the latter, the fund has probably outgrown its template, regardless of how compliant the form looks. Complexity tends to creep in gradually, through an added property, a new member, a foray into an unlisted investment, so a strategy that was once adequate can quietly become inadequate without any single dramatic event.

Catching that drift is largely a matter of habit. A Trustee who revisits the strategy each year, tests it against the assets actually held, and updates it when the fund's reality has moved on will rarely be caught out. The template is a fine place to begin; it is a poor place to stop once a fund has acquired the kind of features that make it genuinely its own.

Practical takeaway

A standard template can suit a simple, diversified fund, but it is no longer enough once a fund has a single dominant asset, a borrowing arrangement, unusual investments such as unlisted assets, related-party dealings, Derivatives or collectables, or a complex membership spanning accumulation and pension phases. In those cases the strategy must engage with the fund's specific risks rather than rely on generic ranges. Trustees can document their own decisions, but genuine investment recommendations require a licensed adviser.