Fiduciary excellence is defined by how prepared you are at the moment of decision. Board Smart® delivers the right intelligence and insights — to the right people, at the right time — so trustees, executives, and staff arrive ready to question, discuss, and decide with confidence.
Not education for its own sake. Intelligence and insight, mapped to the decisions your board is actually about to make.
Prudence isn't measured by how a decision turns out. It's measured by how the decision was reached. That's why preparation matters: it's the line between just checking boxes and exercising good judgment.
Boards do their best work when every member arrives already grounded in what matters. Too often, though, the context that matters most shows up too late — buried in a board package, raised for the first time in the room, or missed entirely.
Board Smart® closes that gap. It maps your upcoming agenda to a curated curriculum of peer intelligence combined with short, expert-grounded briefings and delivers them before the decision. Board time shifts from status updates to substantive dialogue — and decisions hold up to scrutiny because the right intelligence reached the right people at the right time.
Your decisions drive the calendar. Board Smart® maps upcoming agenda items to a curated curriculum, so you are always prepared for your upcoming decisions.
Curated briefings and prompts arrive ahead of key decisions — giving trustees time to absorb, question, and discuss before stepping into the room.
Content is built and informed by a nationally recognized network of subject-matter experts with decades of public-system experience, and informed by 60+ governance reviews.
Short, high-definition video with knowledge checks and downloadable resources available — and the key questions every fiduciary should be asking — designed for busy schedules and built for retention.
Every member has full, always-on access to two curriculum libraries — organized by the decisions you face and the seat you hold. Content is added continuously and refreshed as practice evolves.
Understanding a subject is a means; the right question is the end. For every topic, Board Smart® supplies the questions a fiduciary ought to be asking — and a clear record of what the board has covered and what still needs attention.
That record does two things at once: it puts the capability where it is used — in the room, at the moment of oversight — and it gives the system defensible evidence of a deliberate, well-scoped process.
"What questions should this board be asking before it decides?" Board Smart® answers that for every topic on the calendar.
New trustees are expected to know everything from day one — there is no forgiveness period, and turnover can put institutional knowledge at risk. Day One gives incoming fiduciaries a comprehensive introduction to what every new trustee needs from the outset: fiduciary duty, governance fundamentals, investment basics, plan administration, and the questions every trustee should be asking.
Automatically log completed coursework against each fiduciary's continuing-education requirements. Auditable, exportable records are ready for board reporting, regulator inquiries, and individual trustee files — removing the manual tracking that usually falls to staff.
See your board's preparation at a glance. Reports surface engagement and readiness ahead of upcoming decisions — helping chairs and executives address knowledge gaps before they reach the dais, and giving the system a defensible record of fiduciary preparation.
Board Smart® is built on FASNET — Funston Advisory Services' network of subject-matter experts with direct experience in fiduciary environments. They translate real-world public-system practice into intelligence and insights a board can act on. Human judgment sits behind every module.
Board Smart® membership extends to every trustee, executive, and staff member, and includes:
An initial conversation focused on your organization's governance priorities, oversight challenges, and institutional objectives.