Briefing | Fund Valuation Essentials

Methods, Sources, Policies and Procedures

Tuesday 12th December | 1000 - 1200 ET (Online Session)


New rules on mutual fund fair valuation (such as Rule 2a-5 from the US Securities and Exchange Commission) have once again thrown a spotlight on investment fund valuation practices. This is a highly technical and esoteric field, and failure to comply appropriately with the required regulations surrounding the activity has resulted in a number of high profile enforcement cases in the US and globally.

An appreciation of the landscape of fund valuation is mission critical to investment funds themselves (both their managers and boards) but is also vitally important to those who service the buy-side industry. Much fund pricing is outsourced to third-party administrators or pricing services, their books are prepared and audited by accountants, and lawyers and consultants are asked to opine on compliance with fund regulations.

This Briefing aims to summarize in a non-technical way the essentials of investment fund pricing and valuation for this audience. Delegates will leave with an understanding of the main methods and sources used for fund valuation, how these can be tested and challenged, techniques for governance and oversight and the kinds of reporting and record keeping required.

During the Briefing we will look at key topics such as odd-lot pricing, tolerances, price challenges and overrides, exception reporting, stale prices, back testing and escalation procedures. There will also be a case-study review of some of the key enforcement cases relating to valuation.

The Briefing will be of benefit to fund management valuation teams, fund administrators and custodian banks, fund board directors responsible for valuation oversight and CCO's, fund lawyers and compliance consultants, auditors and accountants and pricing data and software vendors.

Delegates do not need to have any technical knowledge of asset pricing methodologies.


Delegate Passes

Delegate passes cost $199 and numbers are strictly limited. Passes can be booked using the link below.

Book Delegate Pass

Schedule Conflict? Book anyway and you will be sent a copy of the slide deck and Briefing recording to review in your own time.

Briefing will cover ...

  1. Valuation Methods
  2. Pricing Sources
  3. Testing & Challenges
  4. Governance & Oversight
  5. Reporting & Record Keeping
  6. Key Case Studies

Briefing Leader

Ian Blance | Managing Director, Voltaire Advisors


Ian Blance is Managing Director of Voltaire Advisors. Ian has over 35 years’ experience in the financial markets focused on research and valuation of securities and derivatives. He is a regular commentator on valuation and risk issues in the media and a frequent conference speaker.

Ian is also currently Executive Director of the Bond Pricing Institute (a division of the Bond Dealers of America) - a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting professionalism and best practices in fixed-income securities pricing through advocacy, education, and communication. He is also a member of the Working Group on Controls and Reporting of the Financial Instruments Standards Board of the International Valuation Standards Council (IVSC).

In his earlier career Ian developed and ran securities valuation operations for two of the five major information vendors and has provided consulting services for the others. Ian spent 4 years as Head of Evaluated Pricing for SIX Financial Information, based in Zürich, Switzerland and 12 years with Interactive Data Corporation, setting up and building their fixed income valuations business in London and subsequently becoming Managing Director of the market leading Evaluated Pricing unit in New York.

Before Interactive Data, Ian was an economist and senior bond strategist in investment banking.


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