Collective trust funds or Collective Investment Trusts (CITs) are a legal trust administered by a bank or trust company that combines assets for multiple investors who meet specific requirements set forth in the fund’s declaration of trust. Typically, a collective trust pools assets from corporate and governmental profit sharing, pension and stock bonus plans, and charitable and other tax-exempt trusts. While operating in many respects similar to a mutual fund, a collective trust is not regulated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, but rather is established under Title 12, Section 9.18(a)(2) of the Code of Federal Regulations of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), a division within the U.S. Department of the Treasury. CITs have existed since 1927. Their size in assets and importance in the retirement and pension fields have grown significantly in recent years. Estimated assets in collective trusts as of the end of 2016 exceeded $1.4 trillion. In many ways, CITs are similar to mutual funds, and thus, have become especially important in the defined contribution/401(k) market, as of 2016 growing to over $1.5 trillion in assets and comprising over 20% of defined contribution plan assets. Overview Collective trusts are often used in connection with defined benefit plans and, when they can be valued daily, with defined contribution plans as well. Collective trusts generally are excluded from the definition of an “investment company” under Section 3(c)(11) of the Investment Company Act of 1940, and interests in these funds are generally exempt from registration under Section 3(a)(2) of the Securities Act of 1933. In addition, transactions involving interests in collective trusts generally do not require an entity to register as a broker-dealer under Section 15(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. However, when collective trusts are composed of IRA assets or so-called “Keogh plans,” or marketed to the public, some or all of these securities law exclusions and exemptions may not be available; in these situations, registration under one or more federal securities laws could be required. Although they have been available for decades, early versions of collective trusts provided investors with little access to underlying holdings data and were valued infrequently, typically only once per quarter. As a result, collective trusts were quickly overshadowed by mutual funds, which provide investor friendly features such as daily valuations and greater transparency. However, given the later focus on retirement plan fees and full disclosure, and