At first glance, the Global Investment Performance Standards (GIPS®) might seem like a world away from watering houseplants or pulling weeds in your backyard. However, as a firm that specializes in GIPS Compliance and verification, we see useful parallels every day. Just like tending to a thriving garden, becoming a GIPS Compliant firm takes patience, structure, and consistent care.

Here’s how gardening can help bring the GIPS standards to life:

Start with Healthy Soil: Establishing Robust Policies
Every great garden starts with rich, well-prepared soil. In the same way, a successful GIPS Compliant firm starts with a strong foundation of policies and procedures. Before a single seed is planted or a performance report is published, firms need the right infrastructure in place: strong internal controls, data integrity, and clearly written policies and procedures. Without this, it is difficult to grow in a sustainable, compliant way.

Choose the Right Plants for Your Climate: Know Your Composites
Just as different plants thrive in different conditions, not every account belongs in every composite. The GIPS standards require firms to define composite criteria clearly, ensuring accounts are grouped appropriately by strategy. It’s about placing things where they belong based on objective rules that can be maintained for the long term. This thoughtful grouping ensures performance results are both accurate and meaningful to prospective clients.

Water Regularly: Maintain Consistent Procedures
You can’t water a garden once and expect it to bloom all season. Similarly, GIPS Compliance is not a one-time project. Maintaining a GIPS Compliant firm requires regular care and attention. For example, firms must consistently review and update composites, adding and removing accounts according to documented policies. They also must track which GIPS Reports have been provided to prospective clients and when, so updates can be offered as needed. This kind of routine care helps ensure that performance reporting remains accurate and complete. Like gardening, it is a steady, ongoing effort that yields lasting results.

Prune What’s Not Working: Error Correction and Updates
Even the healthiest gardens need pruning. Sometimes a plant outgrows its pot or starts to wither. Good gardeners adjust, and so do GIPS Compliant firms. When something is not working as intended, firms should take action. This may include correcting errors, updating disclosures, refining processes, or providing internal education. A GIPS Compliant firm should be treated as a living system that benefits from thoughtful review and continuous improvement.

From cultivating healthy plants to building a trustworthy investment performance process, gardening offers lessons that apply remarkably well to the GIPS standards. The most fulfilling part of gardening is seeing the results of your hard work: colorful blooms, strong growth, and a space you’re proud to share. For GIPS Compliant firms, the payoff is similar with performance reporting that builds credibility, fosters transparency, and reflects a process that supports sustainable growth. For us at Cascade, with team members who care for everything from carnivorous plants and vegetable gardens to fruit trees and rows of thriving houseplants, it means getting to bring that same mindset of care, consistency, and long term-growth from our gardens to our clients. Whether you are just starting the journey toward GIPS Compliance or maintaining an established process, our team brings hands-on experience, industry insight, and a commitment to making compliance feel purposeful and rewarding. Contact us at connect@cascadecompliance.com.

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