Series 14: 9.1.7. Investment Company Rankings

9.1.7. Investment Company Rankings

Member firms may not use a ranking of investment companies in any retail communication unless it was created and published by a ranking entity or based on a ranking entity’s performance measurements. A ranking entity is any company (such as Moody’s or Standard & Poor’s) that provides independent general information about investment companies to the public and whose services are not procured by the investment company to assign a ranking.

All retail communications containing an investment company ranking must disclose prominently:

• Name of the category (e.g., growth)

• Number of investment companies in the category

• Name of the ranking entity

• Length of the ranking period and its ending date

• Criteria (such as yield or total return) on which the ranking is based

Such communications must also disclose the fact that past performance is no guarantee of