Field Notes
What belongs in a reserve memorandum (and what does not)
A checklist drawn from delivered memos for corporate finance and audit readers.
A useful reserve memorandum answers operational questions: What is the floor? How is float separated from strategic holdings? Which issuers and venues are in scope? What happens when redemption is slow?
It should not become a token market essay. Price charts, protocol roadmaps, and general “digital asset outlook” sections distract audit readers and age poorly. Keep market colour in an appendix if someone insists — or leave it out.
We also omit execution instructions that belong in custody procedures. The memorandum sets policy; runbooks set clicks. Mixing them makes both harder to approve.