SEC Proposes New Fund Research Reports
The SEC has proposed a new rule that would allow third party broker-dealers to publish research reports about registered investment companies without having to comply with current performance presentation requirements. Proposed Rule 139b would allow a broker-dealer that is not affiliated with the fund’s adviser to publish research reports that meet certain presentation requirements even where the broker-dealer participates in the offering. A similar safe harbor already exists for other issuers. The SEC seeks comment about whether performance information should be required to comply with Rule 482’s performance presentation requirements currently applicable to fund advertising.
OUR TAKE: We would go a step further and rewrite Rule 482 to allow more flexibility for all fund materials. Then, the SEC would not have to wrestle with whether to allow different types of fund reports depending on the preparer, which could result in more confusion.