From the Editor...
Mutual fund boards have kicked off 2025 with full agendas despite some uncertainty about how the regulatory climate may change this year and beyond. Independent directors are keeping an eye on Washington for signals of what that climate may look and feel like, but they're cognizant that the picture is unlikely to be fully clear until a new chairman is confirmed to the SEC. Former Commissioner Paul Atkins is the presumptive nominee for the job, but any confirmation of a new SEC chair is likely to be months down the road. In the meantime, boards—like the rest of the market—are working with the information they have and getting on with their fiduciary responsibilities.
On the regulatory front, the SEC earlier this month released much-anticipated FAQs related to the Names Rule amendments. Fund governance professionals with whom we spoke agreed that there was some helpful information provided, but most also agreed that the FAQs didn't go far enough and left questions unanswered. One industry lawyer said the FAQs "largely rehash prior guidance" provided decades ago. This is one of the regulatory initiatives that may be stalled as the SEC leadership and staffing is sorted out over the coming months, though funds, advisers, and boards are continuing to move forward since deadlines are looming, despite a call from the ICI at the end of 2024 to extend the compliance period. Watch this space.
In boardrooms around the country, turn-of-year changes are taking place as veteran directors retire and new individuals join the fold. Lord Abbett Funds welcomed PwC veteran Peter McNamara into the boardroom on Jan. 1, the day after two long-serving independent directors veterans stepped down; Invesco Funds hired former CIO of Eaton Vance and Goldman Sachs Edward Perkin to fill a seat vacated by Robert Troccoli; and Guinness Atkinson Funds added two new independent directors to bump the size of the board back up to six members following the year-end retirement of Susan Penry-Williams and a 2019 retirement.
At Columbia Funds, two boards kicked off the year by putting forth a plan to consolidate governance into a unitary board by moving the seven funds in the Columbia Acorn Trust and Wanger Advisors Trust into the group of funds overseen by the Columbia Funds board; BlackRock said it would conduct tender offers to repurchase common shares of two of its closed-end funds, part of a standstill agreement that will hold off Saba Capital Management's targeting of the funds' performance and governance practices for three years; and Vanguard Group will pay more than $100 million to settle SEC charges related to misleading statements about its target-date funds.
Finally, don't miss our 2024 Viewpoints e-book, which includes all of the Viewpoints articles we published last year—including the last one, just before the holidays, on how Atkins may shape the SEC should be become chair. Download the e-book here.
We are very excited for the year ahead, as we'll celebrate our 10-year anniversary in the fall. The time has flown by, and we continue to be as dedicated to serving our readers now as we were back in 2015 when we launched. We love to hear from you, so please get in touch!
For now,
Hillary Jackson, founding editor