Today, the Forum submitted its comment letter on the Commission's "Proposed Guidance Regarding the Duties and Responsibilities of Investment Company Boards of Directors with Respect to Investment Adviser Portfolio Trading Practices."

The ten-page comment letter applauds the Proposal's recognition of "the key role that directors play in overseeing both funds’ use of soft dollars and advisers’ efforts to obtain best execution on behalf of funds." The letter also notes that, "[t]he Proposed Guidance also correctly emphasizes that directors need to be fully educated about these issues and that they must obtain from advisers the information necessary to fulfill their oversight function."

Additionally, however, the comment letter lays out how the Proposal fails to advance three important goals:

• providing directors with appropriate guidance,


• recognizing the importance of directors’ business judgment in managing conflicts, and


• protecting directors' informed exercise of that business judgment.

The full text of the comment letter can be found at:

http://www.mfdf.org/documents/MFDFCommentLetter-ICARel.28345.pdf