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Shared Insights Compliance & Regulation SEC Enforcement

SEC Targets Retail Alts, Pay-to-Play, Off-Channel Comms in New Agenda

July 2026

The Securities and Exchange Commission released its latest regulatory agenda on Friday, which includes proposals to create greater retail investor access to alternatives, rework the Obama-era “pay-to-play” rule, and update the agency’s books and records rule for investment advisers.

The updated agenda includes nearly 40 rulemaking proposals the agency is considering or has previously announced, such as an effort that would allow publicly traded companies to file disclosures semiannually instead of quarterly, as well as amendments to Form PF reporting requirements and a proposal to scrap the SEC’s trade-through rule.

The SEC’s rulemaking list for 2026 marks the first time the agency updated the agenda in nearly a year. In April, SEC Chair Paul Atkins said the agency aimed to advance about 30 proposals, following a year of little rulemaking activity.

Read more on what STP’s subject matter expert, Lori Weston had to say here.

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SEC finds disclosure failures in RIAs’ cash management, fee practices

Examiners at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have spotted recent deficiencies in RIAs’ cash management recommendations and compensation disclosures, among other areas.

The agency announced its observations, which came from recent staff examinations in a risk alert on RIA conflicts of interest, published Tuesday.

Staff found undisclosed conflicts of interest in RIAs’ cash management programs, mutual fund share class selection and fees that deviated from advisory agreements and other disclosures.

Cash management specifically has come to the fore in recent years, with investors bringing lawsuits against major financial institutions over concerns that they have used uninvested client dollars to line their own pockets while paying investors low rates on that cash.

In many instances, the SEC says advisors have failed to disclose revenues from custodians based on cash balances held there and incentives to recommend cash sweep vehicles which resulted in compensation for the RIA.

In certain cases, advisors also omitted disclosures that cash balances were subject to asset-based fees.

Another section of the risk alert showed the SEC continues to spot share class selection issues, writing that advisors have in many cases failed to disclose economic benefits like 12b-1 fees they receive based on certain mutual fund share classes.

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STP Investment Services Shortlisted for Two Hedgeweek® US Awards 2026

STP Investment Services has been shortlisted in two categories at the Hedgeweek® US Awards 2026:

Fund Administrator of the Year: Middle Office Services
Fund Administrator of the Year: Start-up & Emerging Managers

The Hedgeweek® US Awards recognize firms making a measurable impact across the hedge fund and alternatives industry. Being shortlisted in both categories points to something we believe is the same problem viewed from two ends: managers need institutional-grade operations without institutional-grade overhead, whether they’re launching their first fund or scaling their fifth strategy.

Middle office is where operational risk actually lives

Trade capture. Reconciliation. Pricing. Portfolio accounting. Downstream reporting. When these run as disconnected processes, every handoff is a place for an error to enter and every error surfaces at the worst possible moment, usually in front of an investor.

Our approach is to remove the handoffs. Through BluePrint, our technology platform, trade capture, reconciliation, pricing and investor data live in a single ecosystem. Fewer manual touchpoints. Better data integrity across the fund lifecycle. And real-time visibility into positions, P&L and exceptions — so your team acts on issues while they’re still small.

Behind the platform is a disciplined execution model: dedicated teams, structured workflows and rigorous controls that hold up across complex strategies, asset classes and fund structures. The result is the one thing every growing manager wants and few achieve, you scale assets and strategies without scaling operational risk.

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AI Usage Top Priority for SEC Examiners in 2025

STP’s Lori Weston, Director of Product and Strategy was mentioned in WealthManagement.com’s AI Usage Top Priority for SEC Examiners in 2025.

Examiners at the Securities and Exchange Commission are investigating advisors’ integration of artificial intelligence into their operations, including portfolio management, trading, marketing, and compliance.

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STP Featured in Private Funds CFO

STP’s Dan Houlihan, CEO, and Dan Ceneviva, Head of Product and Technology, shared insights with Private Funds CFO reporter Jennifer Banzaca on the debut of BluePrint.

Dan Ceneviva highlighted how firms and fund managers often deal with multiple fund structures – open-end, and closed-end strategies, and many use disparate systems and tools within the same fund. Going on to say that those types of systems add operational complexities since they often don’t communicate with each other.

Dan Houlihan highlighted STP’s plans to provide other analytics and insight features in further platform updates.

Read more on Dan Houlihan and Dan Ceneviva’s comments and why STP launched BluePrint here.

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