provisions for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to make specific judgments about or even supervise an investment company's actual investment decisions. The act requires investment companies to publicly disclose information about their own financial health. Jurisdiction The Investment Company Act applies to all investment companies, but exempts several types of investment companies from the act's coverage. The most common exemptions are found in Sections 3(c)(1) and 3(c)(7) of the act and include hedge funds. In October 2021, over 60 law firms issued an "extremely unusual joint statement" that special-purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) are subject to regulation under the Act when the SPAC does not acquire an operational business within one year of offering company shares to the public. The statement followed opposition from Yale law professor John Morley and New York University law professor Robert Jackson regarding the dismissal of a lawsuit against the blank-check company GO Acquisition Corp. that had been filed on behalf of an investor. Scale When Congress wrote the act into federal law, rather than leaving the matter up to the individual states, it justified its action by including in the text of the bill its rationale for enacting the law: The activities of such companies, extending over many states, their use of the instrumentalities of interstate commerce and the wide geographic distribution of their security holders, make difficult, if not impossible, effective state regulation of such companies in the interest of investors. Type The act divides the types of investment company to be regulated into three classifications: Face-amount certificate company: an investment company in the business of issuing face-amount certificates of the installment type. Unit investment trust: an investment company which is organized under a trust indenture, contract of custodianship or agency, or similar instrument, does not have a board of directors, and issues only redeemable securities, each of which represents an undivided interest in a unit of specified securities; but does not include a voting trust. Management company: any investment company other than a face-amount certificate company or a unit investment trust. The most well-known type of management company is the mutual fund. Contents Sec. 1. Findings and Declaration of Policy. Sec. 2. General Definitions. Sec. 3. Definition of Investment Company. Sec. 4. Classification of Investment Companies. Sec. 5. Subclassification of Management Companies. Sec. 6. Exemptions. Sec. 7. Transactions by Unregistered Investment Companies. Sec. 8. Registration of Investment Companies. Sec. 9. Ineligibility