Investment Company Notebook

Practical insight and analysis on the accounting, audit and tax issues impacting investment companies.

James Kaiser

Structuring Your ETF to Support Your Intended Dividend Strategy

Posted by James Kaiser Apr 14, 2020 6:05:39 PM

One of the many appealing aspects of the ETF vehicle is that it is generally designed to be tax efficient. The primary mechanism for achieving tax efficiency is the ability to redeem appreciated securities in-kind.  Any gains realized on securities redeemed in-kind are not taxable and therefore do not need to be distributed to underlying shareholders. The ability to utilize custom baskets further enhances an ETF’s tax efficiency by redeeming a sampling of appreciated securities in redemption transactions, while selling depreciated securities to harvest losses.  A seasoned ETF is unlikely to ever have to pay a capital gain distribution.

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Interval Funds - Calibration in Valuation Models | BBD, LLP

Posted by James Kaiser Apr 3, 2020 4:24:34 PM

As many portfolio managers look to launch alternative investment strategies, we have seen a growing interest in the interval fund structure.  An interval fund is a hybrid of an open-end mutual fund and a closed-end mutual fund.  Similar to an open-end fund, an interval fund accepts subscription dollars and issues shares at net asset value on a regular basis, often daily.  However, they generally only offer to repurchase shares at net asset value quarterly.  These infrequent repurchases allow interval funds to hold less liquid assets compared to traditional open-end mutual funds. 

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COVID-19 and Financial Statement Disclosures | BBD, LLP

Posted by James Kaiser Mar 25, 2020 10:30:59 AM

The Coronavirus pandemic (“COVID-19”) is causing significant financial and operating hardships across all industries. Any companies that are currently preparing GAAP financial statements, including investment companies, should consider whether or not the impact of COVID-19 represents a significant event as defined in FASB Accounting Standards Codification (“FASB ASC”) 855, Subsequent Events.

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Securities Lending Fees – Income or Expense Offset?

Posted by James Kaiser Oct 24, 2019 5:28:58 PM

April 2020 Update:

In my original post on answering the question if securities lending fees could be treated as expense offset, my answer to the question was “maybe." This was not a popular answer with my clients as they had competitors who were clearly treating the fees as expense offset.  One of our core values here at BBD is to be a collaborative partner to our clients, within the confines of our professional standards.  While we pride ourselves on being collaborative, this does not mean that we simply try to give our clients the answer that they want to hear.  A big part of being collaborative is providing accurate and correct information to our clients.  This also coincides with our second core value of being authentic. We mean what we say and we say what we mean. Our clients value hearing the truth.  In accordance with these values, I stand by the conclusion in my original post, but would like to further clarify my conclusion from “maybe” to “maybe but unlikely.”  I have yet to see a securities lending arrangement structured in a way that would support treating the fees as an expense offset.  While I believe it is conceptually possible, the most likely result will be that securities lending fees will be treated as an item of income.

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Launching an Interval Fund? 5 Important Audit and Tax Considerations

Posted by James Kaiser May 28, 2019 4:39:08 PM

In recent years, we have seen an increase in the popularity of interval funds.  Interval funds are hybrid products that contain characteristics of both open-end and closed-end funds.  Like open and closed-end funds, they are registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940 and generally take subscriptions daily, although some interval funds may take subscriptions less frequently than daily.

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Surprise! What You May Not Know About the SEC's Custody Rule:  Jim Kaiser Authors Article For the Investment Adviser Association Newsletter

Posted by James Kaiser Aug 13, 2018 6:27:00 PM

Investment advisers deemed to have custody of client funds or securities:  Is your accounting firm both registered with, and subject to regular inspection by, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board?  In certain situations, it's an important question.  Jim Kaiser explores this and other questions about the SEC's Custody Rule in a recent issue of the Investment Adviser Association newsletter.

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Another ETF Accounting Trap

Posted by James Kaiser May 7, 2018 3:30:12 PM

Today I am writing about an accounting error I have been seeing more and more while performing audits of exchange traded funds (“ETFs”).

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Considerations For Mutual Funds For Allocating Earnings and Profits to Distributions

Posted by James Kaiser Oct 10, 2016 7:05:00 PM

In this post, we’ll consider the following:

  • Current requirements, as updated by the RIC Modernization Act of 2010, for allocating earnings and profits across multiple distribution dates in instances where total annual distributions exceed earnings and profits for funds that have fiscal year ends that span two calendar years (e.g.  non-calendar fiscal year end funds)
  • Why this requirement may impact the reporting of distributions in a semi-annual report
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