The firms with the highest annualized active return (alpha) of 4.8 percent were performing well on the material issues and poorly on the
immaterial issues. Those with the lowest alpha, -2.2 percent, were performing poorly on both.
While necessary, that event generally only happens once a year and is often focused on relatively
immaterial issues that are nowhere near what is required to truly understand how effectively a company is governed.
Yet these serious infractions are truly
immaterial issues because of this simple truth: The airport board was illegal.
(14) As had been the case in Germany, small associations of workers joining hands because of a similar profession developed side by side with general Catholic worker associations, which--like Patrimonium in the Protestant case--focused on broader,
immaterial issues. (15) These general associations were coordinated at the level of the Dutch dioceses, which resulted in five diocesan Catholic worker associations.
With the advent and expansion of alternative billing arrangements, including ranges and fiat fees, it behooves neither the client nor the attorney to expend unnecessary time on
immaterial issues.
We may all have heard auditor's stories of how
immaterial issues ("waived adjustments") on the income statement can, over many years, ultimately have a material impact on the balance sheet.
So much of your education has been concerned with
immaterial issues of which you are familiar because most of us do not live in your superficial world.
Although development of an operative definition of materiality may prove to be problematic, we recommend that the evaluation measure be clarified to include an assessment of how well the agent distinguishes between material and
immaterial issues and how well he or she handles the material issues.
However, becoming too deeply involved in
immaterial issues is an error.
Although development of an operative definition of materiality may prove to be problematic, TEI believes the evaluation procedure should measure how well the agent distinguishes between material and
immaterial issues and how well he or she handles the material issues.