Tony Rifilato reports on how the ongoing federal government shutdown is slowing the launch and modification of interval and closed-end funds aimed at retail investors.
A prolonged shutdown is delaying SEC reviews, pushing interval fund registration timelines from the typical six to seven months to as long as nine months. The bottleneck is creating challenges for asset managers eager to roll out new semi-liquid alternatives and adapt existing closed-end products following recent regulatory shifts expanding retail investor access.
Kimberly Flynn, President at XA Investments, noted that the timing couldn’t be worse for such an active segment of the market. “The interval fund area is a really active part of the market for asset managers – there’s a lot of new entrants,” she told FundFire. “People are eager to get going, and this is definitely going to slow that down.”
Flynn added that while SEC leadership has been supportive of expanding retail access to private markets, the shutdown is compounding existing resource constraints. “The disconnect here is that I think the SEC chairman is a lot more supportive for private market access… but the reality is that the resources at the SEC are constraining, and then the federal government shutdown sort of further exacerbates that problem,” she said.
The delays are hitting managers planning 2025 launches particularly hard, as they now face uncertainty around marketing timelines and co-investment relief requests that require SEC approval. “If [the shutdown] goes on much longer, they’re going to slow that down,” Flynn said.
XA Investments research highlights the strength of the interval and tender offer fund market despite near-term disruptions. The firm expects 75 or more new funds to launch in 2025—up from 50 in 2024—with 304 funds currently in the market across nearly 160 sponsors managing $252 billion in assets. Flynn said 41 new filings are already in the registration pipeline, alongside amendments from 16 existing funds removing accredited investor restrictions.
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