Engagement Process
MCO's engagement model creates clarity early, sequences change intelligently, and establishes an operating cadence that can endure beyond any single market view.
Six Phases
The precise scope varies by mandate, but the sequence is deliberate: define, diagnose, design, underwrite, implement, and monitor.
Clarify objectives, stakeholders, existing relationships, liabilities, liquidity, tax constraints, and the specific investment function MCO is being asked to perform.
Representative outputs
Analyze holdings, managers, fees, tax basis, liquidity, concentrations, benchmarks, private commitments, and the current governance process.
Representative outputs
Set policy, capital segmentation, allocation, sleeve roles, risk budgets, liquidity reserves, benchmarks, implementation priorities, and decision authority.
Representative outputs
Evaluate managers, securities, vehicles, private exposures, and implementation options against the role each must play in the portfolio.
Representative outputs
Build a transition plan that accounts for taxes, liquidity, market impact, operational constraints, custody, and the institution's capacity to absorb change.
Representative outputs
Review performance, exposures, manager developments, thesis evidence, liquidity, obligations, and changes in the institution—not merely market returns.
Representative outputs
Illustrative First 90 Days
The first objective is not to trade the portfolio. It is to establish a shared fact base, identify urgent risks, and sequence decisions so that governance and implementation remain aligned.
Days 1–30
Mandate, stakeholders, data intake, current-state analysis, liquidity, urgent exposures, and immediate decision calendar.
Days 31–60
Policy architecture, target portfolio, manager and exposure review, transition alternatives, and committee discussion.
Days 61–90
Approved implementation sequence, monitoring framework, reporting package, action owners, and recurring cadence.
Information Discipline
MCO can work with imperfect legacy data, but the engagement becomes more effective when holdings, tax lots, manager documents, cash flows, private commitments, fees, and prior decisions are accessible and current. Missing information is identified explicitly rather than hidden inside false precision.
Governance Cadence
Monthly / Interim
Watchlists, implementation issues, new information, cash flows, and decisions that cannot wait for the next formal meeting.
Quarterly
Performance and risk attribution, portfolio exposures, manager developments, policy exceptions, and required actions.
Annual
Objectives, capital-market assumptions, policy, strategic allocation, liquidity, engagement scope, and governance effectiveness.
The First Conversation
A useful introductory discussion focuses on the institution, the missing function, the current friction, and the decision that has become harder than it should be.
Begin a confidential discussionConfidential Dialogue
The first conversation is used to define the decision problem, the existing constraints, and whether MCO's perspective can add value.
