SEC, HHS, and IRS Actions Span Investment Funds, Health IT Monitoring, and Trust Reporting

SEC: Investment Fund Applications and Closed Enforcement Meeting

The Securities and Exchange Commission published notices for two investment fund applications in the August 17, 2026 Federal Register. Northern Lights Fund Trust and Ocean Park Asset Management, LLC filed an application with the Commission on July 8, 2026; the Division of Investment Management issued the notice under delegated authority, and full representations, legal analysis, and conditions are available through the SEC's EDGAR system. Separately, Parvin Decentralized Fund and Parvin Fund Management, LLC filed an application on June 8, 2026, which was subsequently amended on July 13, 2026; the notice directs interested parties to the amended and restated application dated July 13, 2026, likewise searchable through EDGAR. Both notices were signed by Assistant Secretary Sherry R. Haywood.

The Commission also announced a Sunshine Act meeting scheduled for 2:00 p.m. on Thursday, August 20, 2026, to be held via remote means and at the Commission's headquarters at 100 F Street NE, Washington, DC 20549. The meeting was closed to the public. The General Counsel of the Commission, or his designee, certified that one or more exemptions set forth in 5 U.S.C. 552b(c)(3), (5), (6), (7), (8), 9(B) and (10) and 17 CFR 200.402(a)(3), (a)(5), (a)(6), (a)(7), (a)(8), (a)(9)(ii) and (a)(10) permit consideration of the scheduled matters. Those matters included institution and settlement of injunctive actions, institution and settlement of administrative proceedings, resolution of litigation claims, and other matters relating to examinations and enforcement proceedings.

HHS/ONC: TEFCA Monitoring Clearance Open for Comment

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), within the Department of Health and Human Services, is seeking a three-year generic clearance from the Office of Management and Budget to collect routine customer feedback on agency service delivery and program performance related to the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA). Comments on the information collection request must be received on or before September 16, 2026.

ONC oversees a TEFCA Recognized Coordinating Entity (RCE) responsible for developing, implementing, and maintaining the Common Agreement, which the document describes as establishing the baseline technical and legal requirements for health information networks to share electronic health information. The document states that with the number of TEFCA participants on the rise, ONC is seeking approval to collect this information from TEFCA users to enhance the efficiency of program management. Likely respondents are Qualified Health Information Networks (QHINs), described as health information networks approved to access and exchange data through TEFCA.

The document explains that the collections are designed to standardize monitoring and performance reports for TEFCA participants. Qualitative feedback — defined in the notice as information that provides useful insights on perceptions and opinions rather than statistical surveys yielding quantitative results generalizable to a population — will target areas such as timeliness, appropriateness, accuracy of information, courtesy, efficiency of service delivery, and resolution of issues with service delivery. ONC states that if this information is not collected, vital feedback from TEFCA users and stakeholders on ONC services will be unavailable.

Over each of the next three years, an estimated 15 respondents are expected to participate, with approximately 7 qualitative feedback activities occurring annually and an average of 71 responses per respondent. Each response is estimated to take an average of 80 minutes, resulting in a total estimated burden of 1,420 hours annually, or 4,260 hours over the three-year period. ONC published a 60-day notice on May 11, 2026, and received no comments in response; the agency states that no modifications were made to the content or burden hours as a result.

IRS: Proposed Removal of Charitable-Trust Reporting Requirement

The Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service published a notice of proposed rulemaking that would amend existing regulations under 26 CFR part 1 governing information reporting by certain trusts. The proposal would remove the requirement to report on Form 1041-A, U.S. Information Return Trust Accumulation of Charitable Amounts, for trusts whose only claimed charitable contribution deduction in a taxable year results from charitable contributions made by a passthrough entity in which the trust holds an interest. The proposed regulations would also clarify that split-interest trusts satisfy their filing obligations by filing Form 5227, Split-Interest Trust Information Return, rather than Form 1041-A.

The document traces the reporting framework to the predecessor provision enacted in the Revenue Act of 1950, Public Law 81-814, noting that Congress was concerned at that time that deductions were being claimed for amounts accumulated in trusts that might not actually be paid to charity for an extended period. The Pension Protection Act of 2006, Public Law 109-280, broadly amended section 6034 to allow the IRS to make changes to information reporting requirements for trusts described in section 4947(a)(2). In response, the IRS revised Form 5227, which replaced Form 1041-A for split-interest trusts for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2007, incorporating information previously reported on Form 1041-A relating to distributions of principal and accumulated income for charitable purposes.

The proposed rulemaking is issued under authority of section 6034 and section 7805(a) of the Internal Revenue Code. The affected regulations are in 26 CFR part 1, covering income taxes and reporting and recordkeeping requirements. The proposed change would affect certain trusts required to report all charitable contributions and amounts permanently set aside for a charitable purpose.

What to Watch

• September 16, 2026: Deadline for public comments on ONC's TEFCA Monitoring Activities information collection request.
• October 16, 2026: Deadline for written or electronic comments and requests for a public hearing on the IRS proposed rulemaking to remove the Form 1041-A reporting requirement for certain trusts.

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