Question of the Week – Where can you find a mutual fund’s full investment holdings?

Submitted by nsscadmin on Wed, 11/20/2019 - 10:00

One of our readers sent in a question last week after looking over our old post on Fund Facts. They noticed that the Fund Facts provided some basic information on a mutual fund’s investment mix including the Top 10 investments in the fund and the breakdown of the investment mix either by industry or asset classes depending on the makeup of the fund. They found this information useful, but they wanted to know how they could find the full investment holdings of a mutual fund so they know exactly what they are investing in.

With responsible investing becoming increasingly popular many investors want to know what they are investing their money in. There may be specific companies or industries they don’t want to be invested in, or conversely, there may be specific companies or industry they want to be invested in. To be sure they need to know the full investment holdings of the funds they are purchasing.

Under securities law, an investment fund is required to provide disclosures about the investments it holds. Depending on the timing of the disclosure of holdings, an investment is required to provide different levels of disclosure. The investment fund must disclose all of its holdings, with some exceptions with its annual and semi-annual financial statements in a Statement of Investment Portfolio (s3.5 of NI81-106). The Statement of Investment Portfolio is available on SEDAR. During quarterly disclosures an investment fund must disclose the entire portfolio by summarized at a subgroup level and the percentage of the total portfolio each subgroup represents (Item 5(2)(a) of the instructions to Form 81-106F1) and the top 25 holdings. These requirements can be found under NI 81-106: Part 6. These quarterly reports do not have to be filed on SEDAR. Instead most funds post them on their website for public view. If an investor requests these quarterly reports from a fund, they must be provided under disclosure requirements. To find out where on the website the report can be found, or to request a copy, talk to your adviser.

Failure to file annual financial statements.
Failure to file interim financial statements.
Failure to file an annual or interim management’s discussion and analysis (MD&A) or an annual or interim management report of fund performance (MRFP).
Failure to file an Annual Information Form (AIF).
Failure to file a certification of annual or interim filings required by Multilateral Instrument 52-109 Certification of Disclosure in Issuers’ Annual and Interim Filings (MI 52-109).
Failure to file required proxy materials or a required information circular.
Failure to file an issuer profile supplement on the System for Electronic Disclosure by Insiders (SEDI).
Failure to file a material change report.
Failure to provide a written update after filing a confidential report of a material change.
Failure to file a business acquisition report.
Failure to file annual oil and gas disclosure prescribed by National Instrument 51-101 Standards of Disclosure of Oil and Gas Activities (NI 51-101) or technical reports for a mineral project required under NI 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects (NI 43-101).
Failure to file a mandatory news release.
Failure to file corporate governance disclosure as required by national Instrument 58-101 Disclosure of Corporate Governance Practices (NI 58-101).
Failure to file audit committee disclosure as required by Multilateral Instrument 52-110 Audit Committees (MI 52-110) or BC Instrument 52-509 Audit Committees.
Failure to include disclosure in an issuer’s MD&A relating to disclosure controls and procedures and their direct effectiveness that is referred to in a certificate filed under MI 52-109.
Financial statements of the reporting issuer, or the auditors’ report accompanying the financial statements, do not comply with the requirements of NI 51-102 Continuous Disclosure Obligations (NI 51-102), National Instrument 81-106 Investment Fund Continuous Disclosure (NI 81-106) or National Instrument 52-107 Acceptable Accounting Principles, Auditing Standards and Reporting Currency (NI 52-107).
The reporting issuer has acknowledged that its financial statements, or the auditors’ report accompanying the financial statements, may no longer be relied upon.
The reporting issuer’s AIF, MD&A, MRFP, information circular, or business acquisition reports do not contain information for each of the content items required by NI 51-102 or NI 81-106.
The reporting issuer’s technical disclosure or other reports do not comply with the disclosure requirements of NI 43-101 or 51-101.
Failure to pay a fee required by the Act or the regulations.
Failure to comply with any other requirement related to continuous disclosure.