Advorra blog

Model portfolio versioning and the strategy of record: a guide for small RIAs

By the team at The CollabHub · Co-written with Mohammad Aamish Aaftab
Published 22 Sep 2026 · Updated 17 Oct 2026

Model versioning means every change to a model portfolio creates a new, dated version instead of overwriting the old one. A strategy of record is a dated log of which model each account was managed to, and from when. Together they let a small RIA answer a question that comes up under any review: what was this account supposed to look like on a given date, and when did that change?

Most of the time, nobody asks what a model looked like eighteen months ago. When someone does ask, there's usually something to explain: a performance question, a client complaint, a records request. The answer then depends on whether the history exists. In many small firms it doesn't. The model lives in a spreadsheet, and when the allocation changes, someone edits the cells. The old allocation is gone, along with the date it changed.

What is model versioning?

Model versioning means each change to a model creates a new version that sits after the old one, instead of replacing it. Version 3 doesn't erase version 2. It follows it. Each version keeps:

• the target allocation and the ranges around it
• the benchmark
• the rebalancing rules
• the investment philosophy, or a note on why it changed
• the date it took effect

What is a strategy of record?

A strategy of record is a dated assignment of a strategy to each account: this account followed Balanced from March 2024, then Growth from June 2026. It turns "what is this account managed to?" into "what was this account managed to on any date?"

Illustrative example only.

How do versioning and the strategy of record work together?

The strategy of record says which model an account followed and when. The model versions say what that model contained at the time. Put the two side by side and you can rebuild what any account was supposed to look like on any date, without relying on anyone's memory.

A worked example

Take a two-person RIA with about 120 households and four models. In May, the investment committee (both partners) decides to cut the bond allocation in the Balanced model by five points and add it to equities, effective 1 June.

Without versioning, someone edits the Balanced spreadsheet on 30 May. Every account on Balanced is now, on paper, managed to the new weights, including for the months before the change. A year later a client asks why their account held more bonds last spring than the model says. The honest answer is that the firm can't show what the model said then.

With versioning, the firm copies Balanced v2 to Balanced v3, changes the weights, adds a one-line reason, and dates it 1 June. Each account on Balanced gets a new line in its strategy of record: v2 closes on 31 May, v3 opens on 1 June. The firm then lists every IPS written against v2 and checks whether each one needs updating. The same client question now takes two minutes to answer: here's what the model held before 1 June, here's what it held after, and here's why it changed.

How do you set this up without extra admin?

1. Stop editing models in place. Copy, change, date. That's the habit.
2. Record why. One line on the reason for each change.
3. Assign every account a strategy with a start date, including reporting-only and held-away accounts.
4. When a client changes strategy, close the old assignment and open a new one on the same date, so there's no gap or overlap.
5. Link the IPS to the model version it was written against, so you know which documents need review when a model changes.

When is this overkill?

If you run one model and almost never change it, a dated change log in the same spreadsheet may be enough. The point is that the old allocation and the date survive. Formal versioning pays off once you have several models, accounts moving between them, or IPS documents that refer to specific allocations. The cost is a few extra minutes per model change. The saving shows up the first time someone asks about the past.

How Advorra handles models

In Advorra, every edit to a model portfolio creates a new version you can trace, with its allocation, benchmark from a 147-index list, rebalancing rules and philosophy. The Strategy Journal holds a date-ranged strategy of record for every account, including reporting-only and non-discretionary accounts. IPS documents fill in from the strategy. If your models still live in spreadsheets that get edited in place, see how versions and the Strategy Journal fit together on the product page, or read how to write an IPS for a small RIA.

General information about organising investment records, not investment, legal or compliance advice. The tables and example above are illustrations, not real accounts.