New website for fund facts disclosure documents launched

The website contains the complete universe of the new mutual fund disclosure documents, which includes more than 25,000 forms from more than 150 fund companies – one form for every class or series of mutual fund in Canada.

“For the advisor, the benefit is it’s one-stop shopping, or at least one-stop sourcing of these fund facts documents,” said Anthony Boright, president of Toronto-based Vault Solutions.

The site is integrated with SEDAR, so that the newest version of each form is automatically uploaded to InvestorPOS on a real-time basis.

“It’s peace of mind to the advisors that they’re getting the latest [version] off the top of the pile,” said Boright.

Under rules that took effect at the beginning of July, mutual fund companies now must have fund facts documents available on their websites, and advisors must deliver the forms to investors who request them.

The new repository prevents advisors from having to go to different websites to access different forms. Advisors can search for documents on the site and deliver them to clients through the website, either electronically or in a printed format, in a compliant manner.

As Boright puts it, the site aims to “automate a lot of that behind-the-scenes stuff so that fund companies can manage assets and advisors and dealers can sell products.”

Use of the website is free for financial advisors and planners. Fund companies can choose to pay a fee to subscribe to a business intelligence service through InvestorPOS, which would provide them with data on the distribution of their fund facts forms by advisors.

Companies can also subscribe to an InvestorPOS publishing service that helps them create, edit and file fund facts documents.

IE