Glossary · Operations and rules

What is Form PF?

Form PF is a confidential report that private fund advisers registered with the SEC file on their funds’ size, borrowing, investors and performance, to help regulators monitor risk.

In practice

Form PF is filed electronically through a SEC-designated system, and it is the fund administrator or compliance team that usually gathers the data. Advisers file annually or quarterly, and what they must report grows with fund type and size: large hedge fund advisers report more often and in more detail. It is separate from Form ADV, the adviser’s public registration.

An example

Round numbers, not a real fund

Say a registered adviser runs 3 private funds holding $2 billion. It files Form PF, with figures on each fund’s assets and borrowing, and the SEC uses the data to watch for risk.

Why it matters

It is a regular compliance task for registered advisers, and its rules change over time, so the details matter.

A definition, not advice; where usage varies the entry says so. Something wrong? Tell the desk.

Related terms

Fund administratorA fund administrator is an independent firm that keeps a fund’s books, calculates its net asset value, processes capital calls and distributions, and handles investor reporting.
AIFMDThe Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive is the EU framework for managers of alternative funds. It covers authorization, reporting, risk controls and marketing to investors.
NAVNet asset value, or NAV, is a fund’s assets minus its liabilities. In private funds it is usually reported quarterly and rests on the manager’s valuations.
Rule 506(b)Rule 506(b) of Regulation D lets a fund raise unlimited money privately, without general solicitation, from accredited investors and up to 35 sophisticated non-accredited ones.
Subscription lineA subscription line is a short-term loan to a fund, backed by investors’ unfunded commitments, that lets the manager invest before calling investors’ cash.

The terms, in the news each morning.

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