SEC staff in December issued a Guidance Update that provides
significant flexibility regarding how mutual funds and variable
annuities (VAs) reflect multiple charge structures in their SEC
registration statements.
Over time, such charge structures have proliferated. For
example, to more easily comply with the fiduciary rules,
promulgated by the Department of Labor last year, a broker (or
other "intermediary") may want the sales charges and
commissions to be the same for each mutual fund or VA that the
intermediary offers its customers. Funds and VA issuers have
therefore been under pressure to make available additional
charge/compensation structures to meet the varied preferences of
the intermediaries that sell these securities.
