SEC Wants to Stop Extra Mailings of Financial Documents

Small investors would receive fewer mutual fund prospectuses and corporate annual reports in the mail under a rule proposed Thursday by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Under current law, such disclosure documents must be delivered to each investment account. Because of the panoply of investments now made through a variety of accounts--mutual funds, 401(k) plans, individual retirement accounts, trusts and others--a single household often receives multiple copies of the same document.

“Each year millions of investors receive unneeded extra copies of these documents that serve no purpose other than to increase costs,” SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt said before the commissioners’ unanimous vote.

The new rule would “save investors from receiving these extra copies and allow companies to save the wasted cost of printing and delivering these documents,” Levitt said. “We might even save a few trees while we’re at it.”

Electronic delivery of financial disclosure documents would not be affected.

Levitt said the SEC is encouraging small investors to call (800) SEC-0330 to ask questions and get more information. Information on the proposal was being posted on the agency’s Web site at https://www.sec.gov

Thursday’s meeting marked the first time since July 1994 that the commission has had its full complement of five members. Two new commissioners--Paul R. Carey, who was President Clinton’s liaison to the Senate, and Laura S. Unger, the securities counsel for the Senate Banking Committee--recently were nominated by the White House and confirmed by the Senate.