Hidden Costs of Managing the Summary Prospectus In-house

In the five years since the Securities and Exchange Commission enacted Rule 498 to allow mutual funds to issue summary prospectuses, over 80% of all funds have adopted it. Investors have benefitted from receiving four- or six-page documents in plain English, with links to the full information on their fund company’s website, rather than long, jargon-filled traditional prospectuses.

Many firms manage the distribution of these summary prospectuses and upkeep of the related websites in-house via a painstaking manual process. However, these firms may not be aware of how much this effort is costing them in terms of time and resource commitment, and whether they are truly complying with Rule 498 and delivering a positive investor experience. Here are four “hidden costs” to watch out for.