Technical article

What a Blank Cell Does to a Ranking

Places with many blanks deserve a second look at the coverage figure before their score is taken at face value.

By Neil Solomon · 3 min read

Imagine you are comparing two schools on a list. Each has a score out of 5. One score is built from every item on the form. The other is built from nine items out of ten, because one was left blank. The two scores sit side by side, and nothing tells you which is which.

Our trust tables work that way, and the blank cells moved places on the list. The question is why a score changes when data is added.

How a score is built

We score each place on 17 facts. Four lenses use them: lasting for generations, protection from claims, privacy and standing, and practical for a retiree. Each lens weights its facts. When a fact is blank, it is left out of the average, and the weights of the other facts count for more.

That leaves a number, but it hides how much stands behind it. So each lens carries a coverage figure, the share of the weight that has data. A place is ranked in a lens at 70% coverage or more. It is ranked overall when each lens has at least 50%.

Leaving a blank out can flatter a place. If the missing fact would have scored low, the average comes out higher than the full set of facts would give.

Two examples

The Cook Islands lacked a stability score. Its coverage was 85% to 90% in each lens, and it came first overall at 4.40. After the cell was filled with a 2, from a BB- credit rating, coverage became 100%, and the overall score fell to 4.09, sixth place.

The Isle of Man went the other way. It had no overall rank, because its asset-protection lens had only 40% coverage. Pass by pass, more cells were filled. Its stability cell went from 4.5 to 5 on a Moody's Aa3 rating. Two other cells, burden and record, were removed for lack of support. Coverage on that lens reached 60%, enough for an overall rank and short of the 70% needed to rank it in that lens. It now ranks second overall at 4.29, and its overall range across random weights runs from first to tenth.

What moved

Ranked places went from 40 to 50 as gaps filled. The list below shows overall rank before the gaps were filled and after.

Seychelles fell when its stability was set at 2 on a Fitch BB rating. Ten places joined the list for the first time: the Isle of Man, the Bahamas, Liechtenstein, New Zealand, Israel, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Ecuador, India and Chile.

Twenty cells are still empty. Places with many blanks deserve a second look at the coverage figure before their score is taken at face value.

Who this touches

Anyone who picks a place from a list. If a trustee or a seller hands you a ranking, the question is what sits behind it. Your children inherit the choice of place along with the trust.

The objection

You might say a ranking is a ranking and the details do not matter. A score of 4.4 against 4.1 does look decisive. Our own table shows the order at the top changed from one pass to the next because of a few cells. The rank range, which comes from 1,000 random sets of weights, tells you more than the single number. The Cook Islands' overall range runs from third to 29th.

A few doors

You could ask of any list how many facts are blank, and whether the blanks are left out or counted as zero. You could change the weights and watch which places hold their position.

Which gap would you want filled first before trusting a ranking? Share it here, and someone may benefit from your story.

Figures are estimates for planning, based on public data. Date read: October 2026.