Under the present system, there is a danger that filing a Form ADV-W in one jurisdiction could be misinterpreted as a filing for all jurisdictions. This sentence may cause confusion because an adviser that advises employee benefit plans, governmental plans, or church plans solely on allocating their investments is entitled to the pension consultant exemption from the prohibition on registration as long as the assets of the plans on which the adviser provides advice satisfies the minimum asset test. I believe the issue to which the instruction is aimed is that advisers who advise clients who are plan participants, as opposed to the plans, solely on allocating their investments within their pension plans are not eligible for the exemption. Thus, any information an adviser provides may become inaccurate shortly after the information is filed. In addition, if the question is to be retained, the instructions should clarify that an adviser is a portfolio manager for a wrap fee program only in the circumstance when the adviser has a contract with the wrap fee program sponsor.
Many brokerage firms sponsor multiple programs that meet the definition of a wrap fee program.
In many of these programs, there is no contract between the sponsor and the portfolio management firm. In this situation, the portfolio manager may not know it is a portfolio manager for a wrap fee program and thus would be unable to provide an accurate response to this item. Under all of these circumstances, I recommend that an adviser not be required to list the wrap fee programs for which it is a portfolio manager, but the question should ask merely if an adviser is a portfolio manager in a wrap fee program, and if necessary, how many accounts it manages as a portfolio manager for wrap fee programs in which the adviser has a contract with the wrap fee program sponsor. If the Commission needs to know the names of the wrap fee programs in which investment advisers participate, it should obtain this information solely from the wrap fee program sponsors. C. Item 6.