An investment committee memo meets the standard when the person who signs can answer seven questions from its first page, and every figure behind those answers is sourced, computed or named as missing. A memo that looks complete but cannot say where its cap rate came from is not ready to sign.
Updated 26 October 2026. A brief for CIOs, managing partners and credit committee chairs: the people who sign, and the people who send memos back.
Key takeaways
- Page one owes seven answers; everything after page one is evidence for them.
- Lead with what the building has done (T-12, rent roll), then what the sponsor says it will do. The gap is usually the deal.
- One rule for every figure: found with a source and a date, computed by a stated formula, or named as missing.
- In our first underwriting runs over the 30 days to 13 October 2026, the report in the middle of the range carried about 1,000 data points: 159 found with a source and date, 607 computed by formula, 164 named as missing.
- A memo that names its gaps is easier to sign than one that fills them with plugs.
Template versus standard
A template is a list of headings: asset, market, rent, underwriting, comparables, debt, risks, recommendation. Our IC memo template gives those headings and a worked example under them. A standard is what each heading must prove. Two memos can follow the same template, and one can still go back to the team because its exit cap rate has no comparable behind it or its NOI is the broker's.
The standard below is written from the signer's chair: what you need to read in the first five minutes to decide whether the next forty are worth it.
The seven answers on page one
| # | The question the signer asks | What the memo must show | What fails it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | What are we buying, at what price? | Asset, units or square feet, price and price per unit | A price with no basis line |
| 2 | What does it earn today? | Trailing NOI from the T-12, tied to the rent roll | Only the broker's in-place figure |
| 3 | What is it worth, and why? | A value range from named comparables | A cap rate asserted, not derived |
| 4 | What does the debt look like? | Loan, rate, debt service, coverage and debt yield on trailing income | Coverage on pro forma income only |
| 5 | What has to go wrong for it to fail? | Break-even: how far income can fall before coverage hits your floor | A sensitivity grid with no line drawn |
| 6 | What is missing? | Each gap by name, with what would close it | Plug figures that look complete |
| 7 | What do we recommend? | Go, no, or go at a price, with the one condition that matters | A summary that restates the deck |
Questions 2 and 5 are the ones signers most often have to dig for. In the worked example on our template page, a 60% loan of $5,760,000 costs $436,885 a year and coverage reaches the common floor if NOI falls to $524,263, which is 5.0% below underwritten NOI. That one line tells a committee how much room the deal has.
The one rule for every figure
Every figure in the memo belongs to one of three kinds, and the memo should say which:
- Found: a fact with a source and a date, such as the owner of record, the last sale, a comparable trade.
- Computed: a formula from found figures, such as NOI, coverage, debt yield, the value at a stated cap rate.
- Missing: a figure the package does not support, named as missing, with what would close it.
A figure that is none of the three is an opinion, and a signer should treat it as one. This is also the fastest way to review a memo: ask the team to mark each page-one figure F, C or M.
We hold our own reports to the same rule. In Titleman's first underwriting runs over the 30 days to 13 October 2026, the report in the middle of the range carried about 1,000 data points: 159 found with a source and date, 607 computed by formula, and 164 named as missing. The 164 are not a defect to hide. They are the list your team works through before committee.
Why the trailing numbers go first
The T-12 and the rent roll are what the building has done. The pro forma is what someone says it will do. Putting the trailing numbers first makes the gap between the two the first thing a signer reads, and on most packages that gap is the deal.
Two examples, one from a package we reviewed and one worked example:
- On a 50-unit loan package, the offering memo said $614,475 of in-place income and the T-12 said $466,880: the memo sat 32% above the T-12. Our lender NOI was $517,544. The line-by-line teardown shows where the $147,595 came from.
- In a worked example of a credit memo, coverage was 1.35x on the pro forma and 1.21x on trailing income of $1,452,000 against $1,200,000 of debt service. What a deal review catches works through it.
A memo that leads with the pro forma makes the signer find that gap. A memo that leads with the trailing numbers has already found it.
How to name what is missing
A gap shown as a gap is more useful than a plug that looks complete. Write each one as a line with three parts: what is missing, why it matters, and what would close it. For example: "Insurance: missing, no bound quote in the package; the T-12 shows a higher premium paid than the pro forma carries; a bound quote from the seller closes it." The committee can then decide whether the gap is a condition of closing or a reason to pass.
In the deal review of a six-file package in October 2026, our engine ended with 6 red flags and 46 more items marked to review. That is the shape of a good memo's missing list: short at the top, longer underneath, each line with what it needs.
What this means for your team's next memo
- Put the seven answers on page one, in this order.
- Mark every page-one figure found, computed or missing.
- Lead with trailing income, then the pro forma, then the gap.
- Draw the break-even line on the sensitivity grid.
- End page one with one recommendation and the one condition that matters.
An AI analyst can build the draft and the model behind it, with the source or formula for each figure; AI investment committee memo software compares how that works. The recommendation and the signature stay with your committee. To see a memo built to this standard on one of your own deals, book a demo.
Updated 26 October 2026. Written by the Titleman team with AI assistance. Data point counts: first Titleman underwriting runs over the 30 days to 13 October 2026. The 50-unit figures and the six-file counts come from packages reviewed by Titleman, client and property withheld; the credit memo is a worked example.
FAQ
What should be on the first page of an investment committee memo?
Seven answers: the asset and the price, trailing income from the building's own books, the value view and its basis, the debt and its coverage, the break-even (how far income can fall before the deal fails), what is still missing, and the recommendation. Everything after page one is the evidence for those seven lines.
What is the difference between an IC memo template and an IC memo standard?
A template is a list of headings. A standard says what each heading must prove: which figures need a source, which are formulas, and how a gap is shown. Two memos can follow the same template and one can still be unsignable, because its cap rate has no comparable behind it.
How should a memo show data it does not have?
By name. A line such as "trailing insurance: missing, no bound quote in the package" is more useful to a signer than a plug figure that looks complete. In Titleman's first underwriting runs over the 30 days to 13 October 2026, the report in the middle of the range named 164 data points as missing rather than filling them in.
Should a memo lead with the pro forma or the trailing numbers?
With the trailing numbers. The T-12 and the rent roll are what the building has done; the pro forma is what the sponsor or broker says it will do. A signer needs the gap between the two on page one, because that gap is usually the deal.
Can an AI analyst write an investment committee memo?
It can write the first draft and the model behind it. Titleman returns a memo and a live Excel model with a source or a formula behind each figure, so your team edits and defends it rather than building it. The recommendation and the signature stay with your committee.