On August 26, 2020, the SEC adopted amendments to its business, legal proceedings and risk factors disclosure rules. All public companies, particularly smaller ones, can benefit from the SEC’s continuing commitment to a principles-based and company-specific approach to disclosure in registration statements, periodic reports and certain proxy statements filed with the SEC.
While the SEC favors a more flexible principles-based approach to disclosure of business descriptions and risk factors as determined by a company’s management, a lack of bright-line, quantitative rules to specify when disclosure is required may lead to second guessing by regulators, among others.