SEC Sets a 19 November Compliance Seminar With Enforcement's Asset Management Unit: How Private Fund Managers Should Prepare

On 6 October 2026 the Securities and Exchange Commission announced that it will host a virtual National Compliance Outreach Seminar for investment companies and investment advisers on 19 November 2026. The announcement is press release 2026-102. The event is a live webcast, no registration is required, and the SEC says the link will be posted on SEC.gov the morning of 19 November. The press release did not give a start time, so check the SEC's event page before you plan the day around it.

What the SEC said it will cover

Speakers will come from three parts of the agency: the Division of Examinations, the Division of Investment Management and the Asset Management Unit of the Division of Enforcement. The listed topics are information security and operational resiliency, topics for registered investment advisers, topics for private fund advisers, topics for registered investment companies, the effectiveness of compliance programmes, and briefings on current issues. The audience named is chief compliance officers and senior staff at advisory firms and investment companies. Questions can be sent in advance or during the event through links in the full agenda.

That mix matters to a private fund manager. Seeing the Examinations staff and an Enforcement unit that focuses on asset managers on the same agenda is a chance to hear which findings and cases the SEC treats as most useful to the industry, in the staff's own words.

Where it sits in this month's SEC activity

The seminar follows the Division of Examinations' publication on 1 October 2026 of a new handbook, titled The SEC Exam Handbook: A Practical Guide on Process and Engagement, which we covered in our note on what private fund managers should do before an examination notice arrives. The handbook walks through each stage of an exam, from risk assessment to disposition letters, and links to other staff resources, including the Division's September 2023 risk alert on assessing risks, scoping examinations and requesting documents.

The seminar also lands alongside other open items we have covered: the proposal to rewrite the adviser custody rule, and the move of the Form PF compliance date to 1 July 2027. A manager watching all three has a fair amount to track in the next few weeks. The SEC's New York Regional Office ran a regional seminar on 16 June 2026 whose agenda included a private funds examination session, so the topic is not new to the Commission's outreach programme.

What the Division's 2026 priorities say about private funds

The Division of Examinations' priorities for fiscal year 2026, published in November 2025, are the best guide to what the staff will want to discuss. For private fund advisers they point to newly launched funds and managers expanding into semi-liquid products. They name allocation methodologies, fee and expense calculations including offsets and waivers, and differential treatment of investors including through side letters. They also name liquidity management, whether disclosures match what the firm actually does, and substantiation of marketing claims. On conflicts they point to allocation across vehicles, cross-fund transactions, and managing private funds side by side with retail products. The priorities describe the Commission's expectation as compliance that is demonstrable, documented and tested.

What to do before 19 November

This section is our advice and not something the SEC said. Start by putting the date in the diary for your chief compliance officer and one deputy, and ask someone to take notes you can share with the investment team afterwards.

Second, run a short self-review against the priorities above before the seminar, so that you listen with your own gaps in mind. Check that fee and expense calculations, including offsets and waivers, can be traced from the limited partnership agreement to the invoices. Check that your side letter register is complete and that any most-favoured-nation elections were honoured. Test whether you can substantiate every performance and track record claim in your marketing, which is a live issue under the marketing rule.

Third, prepare questions and send them in advance. Good questions are specific: which private fund findings the staff see most often, how the new handbook changes the way exam requests are scoped, and how the staff expect firms to document a review that found nothing. Avoid questions about your own facts, since the webcast is public.

Fourth, connect compliance to fundraising. LPs read your compliance answers closely, and a fresh review gives you better material for your DDQ responses. Our guide to the LP diligence pack sets out what institutional investors ask to see.

Fifth, write down what you find and the date you fixed it. The SEC's own language is about demonstrable and documented compliance, and a dated remediation note is easier to show than an assurance.

What to watch next

Watch for the SEC's event page with the full agenda and start time, for any slides or recordings after 19 November, and for new risk alerts that often follow staff outreach. FundLinx members can see what LPs are asking about operational diligence.

This article is for information only and is not legal advice.

FundLinx Intelligence | FundLinx.ai