The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”) generally prohibits the bribing of foreign officials. The FCPA also requires publicly traded companies to maintain accurate books and records and to have a sys-tem of internal controls sufficient to provide reason-able assurances that transactions are executed and assets are accounted for in accordance with management’s authorization and recorded as necessary to permit the preparation of financial statements in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles (known as “GAAP”).

Real estate investment trusts (“REITs”) allow individuals to invest in large-scale, income-producing real estate. A REIT is a company that owns and typically operates income-producing real estate or related assets. These may include office buildings, shopping malls, apartments, hotels, resorts, self-storage facilities, warehouses, and mortgages or loans. Unlike other real estate companies, a REIT does not develop real estate properties to resell them. Instead, a REIT buys and develops properties primarily to operate them as part of its own investment portfolio.

The Committee on Uniform Securities Identification Procedures (CUSIP) number identifies most securities, including U.S. government and municipal bonds. CUSIP numbers are unique nine-character alphanumeric identifiers assigned to each series of securities.

An ETF is an exchange-traded investment product that must register with the SEC as an open-end investment company (or sometimes as a unit investment trust).

The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, which is administered by the U.S. Department of Labor. ERISA does not require employers to offer a pension plan. But it does require employers who do offer them to meet certain minimum standards.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) is the accounting standard setter for purposes of the Federal Securities Laws. See GAAP.

Statements of additional information (SAIs) convey information about a fund in addition to what is available in the prospectus. Mutual funds, ETFs, registered closed-end funds, and some variable contracts will have SAIs.

The SAI generally includes the fund’s financial statements and additional information about: the history of the fund; officers, directors and persons who control the fund; investment advisory and other services; brokerage commissions; and tax matters. The SAI may contain expanded discussions of the matters described in the prospectus.

An initial public offering, or IPO, generally refers to when a company first sells its shares to the public. For more information about IPOs generally, see our Investor Bulletin.

GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) are accounting standards, conventions and rules. It is what companies use to measure their financial results. These results include net income as well as how companies record assets and liabilities. In the US, the SEC has the authority to establish GAAP. However, the SEC has historically allowed the private sector to establish the guidance. See The Financial Accounting Standards Board.

The SEC’s EDGAR database provides free public access to corporate information, allowing you to quickly research a company’s financial information and operations by reviewing registration statements, prospectuses and periodic reports filed on Forms 10-K and 10-Q. You also can find information about recent corporate events reported on Form 8-K.