To identify areas of improvement, every Board should evaluate its performance on a regular basis. FGS can assist on a confidential basis with this delicate task.

A main principle of The Combined Code is that ‘Boards should undertake a formal and rigorous annual evaluation of its own performance and that of its committees and individual directors’.

FGS recognizes that this is difficult and delicate task that many Boards are reluctant to tackle. FGS will assist the Board approach this best practice task by conducting either or both of the individual and board entity evaluations.

The new UCITS Regulations, by placing specific regulatory responsibilities on individual directors, create a new dilemma for Boards. The dilemma being that for the first time legal liability may apply to the board as a whole for a specific regulatory failure of an individual director. This dichotomy means Boards should really consider regular Board evaluations as a collective risk management process.