Mutual Fund Minute

On Halloween 2023, the U.S. Department of Labor spooked the investment adviser world when it proposed rules that would redefine who is a fiduciary when someone provides investment advice for purposes of the Employee Retirement Income Securities Act of 1974 (ERISA).  If adopted as proposed, these rules would greatly expand the categories of investment advice that would be subject to ERISA’s fiduciary standards.

In this episode of the Mutual Fund Minute, host and Sidley partner Jay Baris, and Beth Dickstein, a Chicago-based partner in Sidley’s Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation practice, look at how these new rules would affect investment advisers and investors.

The Financial Stability Board, or FSB, is laser-focused on money market funds, mutual funds, and private funds. Specifically, the FSB is concerned that leverage in these funds and other so-called nonbank financial institutions could lead to market volatility, and, worse, could destabilize the global financial system. 

In this episode of the Mutual Fund Minute, host and Sidley partner Jay Baris is joined by Joel Feinberg, co-leader of Sidley’s Banking and Financial Services practice, head of the firm’s Financial Institutions group in Washington D.C., and a member of the firm’s Executive Committee. Together, they discuss what this means for U.S. funds and U.S. investors.

Why me? And why now? That is usually the first thing an investment adviser asks when the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Examinations comes knocking on the door. Understanding why the SEC chooses advisers for examinations at any given time could help the adviser better prepare for the inevitable.

In this episode of the Mutual Fund Minute, host and Sidley partner Jay Baris speaks with Ranah Esmaili, Sidley partner and a member of the firm’s global Securities Enforcement and Regulatory practice. Together they discuss how the Division of Examinations determines which advisers to examine and the scope of those examinations.

Naming a registered investment company will become more challenging now that the Securities and Exchange Commission has significantly broadened the scope of the rule governing fund names. Moreover, the SEC estimates that when the Names Rule goes into effect, three out of four registered funds will be subject to the new requirements.

In this episode of the Mutual Fund Minute, host and Sidley partner Jay Baris follows up on his first segment, '"What's in a Name." Jay and Louisa Kiu, Investment Funds counsel in Sidley’s Boston office, discuss the new and expanded Names Rule, and what it means for funds, advisers, and fund directors.

Federal regulators propose to make it easier to designate a nonbank financial company as a systemically important financial institution that could threaten the financial stability of the economy if it were to fail.

In this episode of the Mutual Fund Minute, host and Sidley partner Jay Baris speaks with Joel Feinberg – co-leader of Sidley’s Banking and Financial Services practice, head of the firm’s Financial Institutions group in Washington, D.C., and a member of the firm’s Executive Committee. Together, they look at how and why nonbank financial companies, including potentially mutual funds, ETFs and private funds, would be subject to regulation by the Federal Reserve.  

The recent collapse of several high-profile banks has amplified concerns among money managers and fund directors about counterparty risk. What should advisers and fund directors know about counterparty risk? How can they identify and manage the potential pitfalls, while simultaneously satisfying their oversight responsibilities?

In this episode of the Mutual Fund Minute, host and Sidley partner Jay Baris speaks with Liz Schubert — global co-chair of Sidley’s Derivatives industry group and the founding member of Sidley’s Buy Side Derivatives practice — about the five best steps advisers and funds can take to mitigate counterparty risk, and what fund directors should consider.

Money market funds dodged a bullet when the SEC declined to impose swing pricing when it adopted final reform rules on July 12, 2023.  

Listen here as Sidley’s Jay Baris and Doug McCormack discuss the new money market reform rules, including the mandatory liquidity fee and how they affect funds, investors, and fund directors.

In this episode of Mutual Fund Minute, Sidley partners Jay Baris and Benson Cohen discuss the SEC’s proposed rules to address conflicts of interest when broker-dealers and investment advisers use predictive data analytics.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has proposed sweeping new rules to address how investment advisers safeguard client assets. In this episode of Mutual Fund Minute, Sidley’s Jay Baris looks at how the revisions to the SEC’s so-called custody rules would affect advisers, funds, and investors.

The SEC continues its breathtaking pace of rulemaking that touches funds, their independent directors, investment advisers, and other service providers. Listen here as Jay Baris, a partner in Sidley’s Investment Funds practice, looks at the SEC’s regulatory agenda for the coming months.