The book · The IDR Principles, Edition 1.0
Inside If Done Right
Six parts that move from the human reality of the moment, through the surface AI has opened and the places governance breaks, to the twelve principles and a concrete path to implement them.
If Done Right is a practitioner's book on AI governance for SEC-registered investment advisers. Across six parts it maps the AI surface, shows where governance breaks, presents the twelve IDR Principles, makes the owner's business case, and gives a Minimum Viable IDR path and a First 30 Days sequence, plus a working audit checklist in the appendices.
The arc
Six parts, one argument
The Human Reality of This Moment
The regulator's impossible desk and the firm in the middle. Two professionals overwhelmed by the same problem from opposite sides.
- The Regulator's Impossible Desk
- The Firm in the Middle
Going Wide: The Explosion
195 doors and counting. Most firms have never counted how many touchpoints AI has already opened, or how each maps to an existing SEC priority.
- 195 Doors and Counting
Going Deep: Where Governance Breaks
The five places AI governance breaks hardest, from vibe coding to shadow AI to the vendor layer that changes its terms without telling you.
- The Myth of Vibe Coding
- Shadow AI and the Supervision Gap
- The Vendor Layer and the Silent Upgrade
- Records, Drafts, and Substantiation
- Client Data on the Move
The IDR Principles
The twelve principles as a governance framework, in four categories. Each with its anatomy: why it matters, done right, done wrong, an example, and the examiner question.
- The Three Things You Can't Skip
- The Sophistication Problem
- Accountability Has an Architecture
The Owner's Case
Written for the owner, in the owner's language: growth, margin, talent, succession, and why governance done right is a growth strategy, not just a cost.
- The Problems That Never Reach Your Desk
- The Drag Coefficient
- Outcreate, Outcompete
- Rowing in the Same Direction
Application
Where firms actually get exposed, what a defensible process looks like, the shortcuts that fail, a Minimum Viable IDR path scaled to firm size, and a concrete First 30 Days.
- Where Firms Actually Get Exposed
- What a Defensible Process Looks Like
- Four False Approaches
- Minimum Viable IDR
- The First 30 Days
- The Window
How to use it
Read for your seat, then act
If you are a CCO
Read Parts II through VI in order, then use the Working Audit Checklist immediately. It is the first working tool, not ornamental back matter.
The compliance officer’s pathIf you are an owner
Start with Part V, written for you. Then read Part I, Part IV, and the implementation chapters. Your job is not to become the CCO. It is to fund and empower the answer.
The owner’s caseThe back matter earns its keep
Tools you can put to work the same day
The regulatory intelligence platform referenced throughout the book was built by the authors over a two-year period. Readers who want to verify the operational context can find the platform, TIME, at timewrit.com.
The conclusion
From Gensoku to Henka
Gensoku is the durable principle that survives beyond any single technique. Henka is variation: applying the principles to workflows the book did not name. The twelve IDR Principles are the gensoku. The book closes by showing how to carry them into the situations that do not exist yet. Edition 1.0 is not the last word. It is the first credible one.
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If Done Right publishes soon. Leave your email and we will send you one note the day it is available, along with early access to the working audit checklist from the book.
Written for the chief compliance officer having the week the policy manual did not plan for, and the owner who controls the budget, authority, and attention to fix it.