On June 1st, the SEC announced settlements with 13 RIAs who repeatedly failed to file Form PF reports. Most of these firms never filed over the review period (2012 through 2016). Eleven of them became registered around the same time or after the initial Form PF filing deadline. One of the other two, although initially registered in 2008, never filed Form PF. The last, a firm initially registered in 1981, appears to have made only the initial filing.

These filings – important to the agency for monitoring industry trends, identifying risks, informing rulemaking, and targeting investigations – make for low-hanging fruit and a relatively easy violation to identify when syncing registrants Form PF filings with their private fund reporting on Schedule D, Section 7.B.(1) of Form ADV Part 1A. All 13 matters resulted in settlements with identical penalties of $75,000 regardless of the number of years missed or other varying fact patterns. For each, violations were cited under Advisers Act Rule 204(b)-1, reporting by investment advisers to private funds.