The Investment Funds Branch of the Ontario Securities Commission released a new edition of The Investment Funds Practitioner on May 23, 2013. The Practitioner provides an overview of recent issues arising from applications for discretionary relief, prospectuses and continuous disclosure documents of investment funds. The May 2013 Practitioner includes commentary on the following topics:
- terms and conditions for scholarship plans to invest the income portion of the plans in equity securities;
- guidance on the impact of the federal government’s budget on character conversion transactions of investment funds;
- fee and expense disclosure in short form prospectuses;
- return disclosure in flow-through limited partnership prospectuses;
- disclaimers of liability for third party information in prospectuses;
- characterization of an issuer investing in pools of non-guaranteed mortgages;
- approach on exemptive relief to permit the deposit of assets of a commodity pool as margin with a single dealer for certain specified derivatives transactions;
- review of bullion funds in response to drop in gold bullion prices; and
- required website display of Fund Facts documents and IRC Reports to Securityholders.