On October 8, the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) published amendments to National 81-101 Mutual Fund Prospectus Disclosure, its companion policy and related forms in furtherance of their project to implement point of sale disclosure for mutual funds. As we discussed in earlier posts of June 2009 and June 2010, the CSA intend to proceed with a staged implementation of the project, with the first stage being the finalization of requirements respecting the preparation and filing of a "fund facts" document.
To that end, the amendments released this month, which take into account feedback received on the CSA's 2009 proposals, set out the content and filing requirements of the fund facts document. To be filed concurrently with a mutual fund's simplified prospectus and annual information form, the document will "highlight key information that is important to investors" in plain language. The document will also have to be made available on a mutual fund's or manager's website.
The CSA expect that the amendments will come into force on January 1, 2011. Mutual funds will be given until April 8, 2011 to begin filing fund facts documents with prospectuses, while funds will have until July 8, 2011 before fund facts documents must be filed for each class or series of securities of the mutual fund. Later stages of the CSA's project will consider point of sale delivery for other types of publicly offered investment funds
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