Investor Alerts and Bulletins

The SEC’s Office of Investor Education and Advocacy (OIEA) urges investors to be vigilant for investment scams related to natural disasters, including the recent Texas floods. Fraudsters often seek to use disasters and other events, such as floods, wildfires, and hurricanes to lure victims into investment scams. These frauds may directly target individuals receiving money from insurance companies or other sources. These investment frauds can take many forms. For example, fraudsters may:

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Office of Investor Education and Advocacy, the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA), and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) are issuing this Investor Bulletin to help investors better understand the designations financial professionals use.

The SEC’s Office of Investor Education and Advocacy is issuing this Investor Bulletin to help educate investors about cash sweep programs, which broker-dealers and investment advisers (“investment firms”) offer to manage uninvested cash held in accounts by their investment firms. This Investor Bulletin describes these cash sweep programs and suggests questions you may want to ask yourself to help you decide how to best manage the uninvested cash in your investment account.

The Office of Investor Education and Advocacy is issuing this Investor Bulletin to help investors understand important similarities and differences between mutual funds and ETFs.

The SEC’s Office of Investor Education and Advocacy is issuing this Investor Bulletin to educate investors about target date funds. This Investor Bulletin discusses only target date funds that are mutual funds or exchange-traded funds (ETFs) registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940. What are target date funds?

The SEC’s Office of Investor Education and Advocacy is issuing this Investor Bulletin to help educate investors about lost and stolen securities and the Commission’s Lost and Stolen Securities Program (“LSSP”), a database for securities certificates reported lost, stolen, missing, or counterfeit.

The SEC’s Office of Investor Education and Advocacy (OIEA) urges investors to be on the lookout for investment scams related to natural disasters, including the recent California wildfires. Fraudsters often seek to use disasters and other events, such as wildfires, hurricanes, floods, and oil spills, to lure victims into investment scams. These frauds may directly target individuals receiving money from insurance companies or other sources. These investment frauds can take many forms. For example, fraudsters may:

Whether you are a first-time investor or have been investing for years, here are 10 tips from the SEC’s Office of Investor Education and Advocacy to help you make better informed investment decisions and avoid common scams in 2025.

The SEC’s Office of Investor Education and Advocacy is issuing this Investor Bulletin to provide investors with information about business development companies, or BDCs, whose shares are not traded on national securities exchanges. It is important to understand them before investing. Learn more about BDCs whose shares are traded on national securities exchanges at Publicly Traded Business Development Companies (BDCs): Investor Bulletin.

The SEC’s Office of Investor Education and Advocacy is issuing this Investor Bulletin to provide investors information about business development companies, or BDCs, that are traded on national securities exchanges. It is important to understand them before investing.