The Investment Funds and Structured Products Branch of the Ontario Securities
Commission recently released the November 2014 issue of The Investment Funds
Practitioner, which provides an overview of recent issues
arising from applications for discretionary relief, prospectuses
and continuous disclosure documents filed by investment funds.
Below is a summary of a few issues identified.
Prospectuses
Fee-Based Series with Dual Dealer Compensation
According to the Practitioner, Branch staff have recently become
aware of certain investment fund series intended for fee-based
accounts with a trailing commission embedded in the fund
series' ongoing cost. According to staff, embedding a trailing
commission in a fee-based series is potentially misleading for
investors and this practice may raise the issue of double charging
by dealers, contrary to a dealer's general duty to deal fairly,
honestly and in good faith with its clients. Staff will require
managers of existing
