17 CFR Part 279 - FORMS PRESCRIBED UNDER THE INVESTMENT ADVISERS ACT OF 1940

The Securities and Exchange Commission (“Commission”) is proposing new and amended rules and forms under both the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 (“Advisers Act”) and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (“Exchange Act”) to require registered investment advisers and registered broker-dealers (together, “firms”) to provide a brief relationship summary to retail investors to inform them about the relationships and services the firm offers, the standard of conduct and the fees and costs associated with those services, specified conflicts of interest, and whether the firm and its financial professionals currently have reportable legal or disciplinary events. Retail investors would receive a relationship summary at the beginning of a relationship with a firm, and would receive updated information following a material change. The relationship summary would be subject to Commission filing and recordkeeping requirements. The Commission also is proposing two rules to reduce investor confusion in the marketplace for firm services, a new rule under the Exchange Act that would restrict broker-dealers and associated natural persons of broker-dealers, when communicating with a retail investor, from using the term “adviser” or “advisor” in specified circumstances; and new rules under the Exchange Act and Advisers Act that would require broker-dealers and investment advisers, and their associated natural persons and supervised persons, respectively, to disclose, in retail investor communications, the firm's registration status with the Commission and an associated natural person's and/or supervised person's relationship with the firm.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (the “Commission” or “SEC”) is making technical amendments to Form ADV under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 (“Advisers Act”) to reflect the enactment of a Wyoming state law regulating investment advisers. Form ADV is the form advisers use to register with the Commission and the state securities regulatory authorities. The Commission is also making similar amendments to Form ADV-W, the form advisers use to withdraw from registration with the Commission or the states.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (the “Commission” or “SEC”) is adopting amendments to Form ADV that are designed to provide additional information regarding advisers, including information about their separately managed account business, incorporate a method for private fund adviser entities operating a single advisory business to register using a single Form ADV, and make clarifying, technical and other amendments to certain Form ADV items and instructions. The Commission also is adopting amendments to the Advisers Act books and records rule and technical amendments to several Advisers Act rules to remove transition provisions that are no longer necessary.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is proposing amendments to Form ADV that are designed to provide additional information regarding advisers, including information about their separately managed account business; incorporate a method for private fund adviser entities operating a single advisory business to register using a single Form ADV; and make clarifying, technical and other amendments to certain Form ADV items and instructions. The Commission also is proposing amendments to the Advisers Act books and records rule and technical amendments to several Advisers Act rules to remove transition provisions that are no longer necessary.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (“Commission” or “SEC”) is adopting amendments to the rules that govern money market mutual funds (or “money market funds”) under the Investment Company Act of 1940 (“Investment Company Act” or “Act”). The amendments are designed to address money market funds' susceptibility to heavy redemptions in times of stress, improve their ability to manage and mitigate potential contagion from such redemptions, and increase the transparency of their risks, while preserving, as much as possible, their benefits. The SEC is removing the valuation exemption that permitted institutional non-government money market funds (whose investors historically have made the heaviest redemptions in times of stress) to maintain a stable net asset value per share (“NAV”), and is requiring those funds to sell and redeem shares based on the current market-based value of the securities in their underlying portfolios rounded to the fourth decimal place ( e.g., $1.0000), i.e., transact at a “floating” NAV. The SEC also is adopting amendments that will give the boards of directors of money market funds new tools to stem heavy redemptions by giving them discretion to impose a liquidity fee if a fund's weekly liquidity level falls below the required regulatory threshold, and giving them discretion to suspend redemptions temporarily, i.e., to “gate” funds, under the same circumstances. These amendments will require all non-government money market funds to impose a liquidity fee if the fund's weekly liquidity level falls below a designated threshold, unless the fund's board determines that imposing such a fee is not in the best interests of the fund. In addition, the SEC is adopting amendments designed to make money market funds more resilient by increasing the diversification of their portfolios, enhancing their stress testing, and improving transparency by requiring money market funds to report additional information to the SEC and to investors. Finally, the amendments require investment advisers to certain large unregistered liquidity funds, which can have many of the same economic features as money market funds, to provide additional information about those funds to the SEC.