SEC Officials Address Fair Value Rules for Private Assets

Two senior Securities and Exchange Commission officials have issued a joint statement addressing fair value measurement and disclosure considerations specifically for private assets, signaling heightened regulatory attention to how investment funds value holdings that lack readily observable market prices.

Kurt Hohl, the SEC's Chief Accountant, and Brian Daly, Director of the Division of Investment Management, co-authored the statement. The pairing of accounting and investment management leadership underscores the cross-disciplinary nature of the concerns regulators are raising around private asset valuation practices.

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Fair value measurement has long been a contested area in financial reporting, particularly for private assets such as private equity holdings, private credit instruments, and other illiquid investments where market-based pricing data is limited or absent. Fund managers and their auditors must apply judgment-heavy methodologies, creating potential variability in reported values that regulators and investors scrutinize closely.

The statement arrives amid a period of substantial growth in private markets, with institutional and retail investors increasingly gaining exposure to private assets through registered funds. That expansion has drawn sustained SEC attention to whether existing disclosure frameworks adequately inform investors about how asset values are determined and the assumptions underlying those estimates.

The guidance from Hohl and Daly represents the agency's latest effort to reinforce expectations for transparency and rigor in private asset accounting without waiting for formal rulemaking. Compliance professionals and fund accountants are expected to review the statement carefully for indicators of future examination priorities. Continue reading at Speeches and Statements.