While registered investment advisors must press ahead in meetingtheir Form ADV filing obligations during the government shutdown,the agency's divisions will be unable to conduct business asusual.
|“Firms still can and should make all required filings (ADV orotherwise) with the SEC,” Gail Bernstein, the Investment AdviserAssociation's general counsel, told ThinkAdvisor on Wednesday.
|“I believe that all statutory and regulatory deadlines must bekept by [SEC] registrants (or applicants),” Berstein said, as notedin the SEC's operations shutdown plan.
|The agency's divisions of Corporation Finance, InvestmentManagement, Trading and Markets, and the Office of ComplianceInspections and Examinations “will be unable to process filings,provide interpretive advice, issue no-action letters or conduct anyother normal Division and Office activities,” according to theplan.
|As a result, “new or pending registration statements orapplications for exemptive relief will not be processed regardlessof the status of any review of those filings.”
|The commission's Division of Investment Management also posteda notice stating that under shutdown guidelines “you won't beable to accelerate the effectiveness of various investment companyfilings and you won't get answers to questions from the Division,”Bernstein notes.
|The shutdown guidance as it relates to the SEC's InvestmentAdviser Registration Depository, or IARD, system “is operatedpursuant to a contract and thus will remain fully functional andwill continue to accept filings as long as funding for thecontractor remains available through permitted means,” according tothe plan.
|However, OCIE will be “unable to approve” advisor registrationapplications, and Investment Management cannot “provideinterpretive advice regarding the Advisers Act, rules or forms, orconsider applications for exemptive relief under the Advisers Act,”the plan states.
|As a result, new or pending investment advisor applications“will not be processed,” but the IARD system will continue toaccept annual and other-than annual amendments to Form ADV, FormADV-W and Form ADV-E filings.
|READ MORE:
|SEC and DOL moving in tandem on investment advicerules
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Melanie Waddell
Melanie is senior editor and Washington bureau chief of ThinkAdvisor. Her ThinkAdvisor coverage zeros in on how politics, policy, legislation and regulations affect the investment advisory space. Melanie’s coverage has been cited in various lawmakers’ reports, letters and bills, and in the Labor Department’s fiduciary rule in 2023. In 2019, Melanie received an Honorable Mention, Range of Work by a Single Author award from @Folio. Melanie joined Investment Advisor magazine as New York bureau chief in 2000. She has been a columnist since 2002. She started her career in Washington in 1994, covering financial issues at American Banker. Since 1997, Melanie has been covering investment-related issues, holding senior editorial positions at American Banker publications in both Washington and New York. Briefly, she was content chief for Internet Capital Group’s EFinancialWorld in New York and wrote freelance articles for Institutional Investor. Melanie holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Towson University. She interned at The Baltimore Sun and its suburban edition.
