EDGAR in the building! Financial Literacy Webcast
Disclaimer:
Everything below is a mix of what I observed and heard during the event. The goal isn’t to pinpoint "who exactly said what," but to share (usually) an outsider's view and overall perspective on these industries. I’m not here to act as a definitive firsthand source—readers should do their own research. I hope this inspires you to attend events, explore new industries, and hear what leaders are presenting. These notes combine my observations with thoughts on how things could run smoother and how ideas connect (IMO). I’m not an expert, you know? Just hanging out in the room with them. Enjoy!Topics Covered:
I’m excited to jump back into some events this week. It’s been a dull few weeks here in this region… as far as KT attending goes. But, what do I love? Certain stocks and companies and their leadership and ethics and values leading the way. Do you know one thing I think I understand well and support… the idea of transfer agents. You know, it’s hard to be a professional/smart in all things finance. But I enjoy learning, for sure. And Computershare (from what I can tell) I’m a fan of… at least some of what they do. As I learn more, I’ll know more. So, it seems time to jump back on the internet and attend a webinar, gosh darnit.
Why Attend? Well… 1. I’m going to be teaching more online classes soon, so it’s good to experience this again (note to self… you know). 2. I like learning more about the stock market and how the regulations and expectations are evolvoing. 3. It’s only half an hour, so I better get ready to type!! No cheating. I jsut wanna see what I hear and write it. So… here we go, below… let’s see what’s going on in the financial world.
Overall Event Review: Venue (5/5), Food (N/A), Speaker Content (5/5), Networking (0/5), Likeliness to Return (5/5)
Photo Collage and Commentary:
Notes from the Event:
Okay they have three guys from the company here. This video is recorded. I think?
What is EDGAR Next? Their modernization of the filling system.
It’s a modernization project by the SEC to bring the filing system up to date with modern security standards.
They’re overhauling the way you authenticate to it…
This doesn’t impact on anyone using this for filing… the security hasn’t changed in the last 20 years (I dont’ quite get this - but he said he’ll get into it today)
Okay… changes:
critical changes every FILER should be aware of:
CIK/CCC are being phased out… they’ve been used to transmit filings for the past 2 decades… but now that’s changing.
You need a new EDGAR account, there will be multi-factor when you’re submitting filings.
You’ll have to delegate filing capabilities to the individual filing it (and there is now a new enrollment process for the third parties)
it used to be that you could just have a username and password, basically… and anyone could login to use it - now we need a list of who has the authority to submit the filings
Thta’ts my takes
What’s the biggest difference between the current system and this new act?
well, teh last 20 years, as long as electronic filings have been submitted, all you needed was the CIK and CCC —- anyone who had the “essentially username and password” could just upload it… it’s like sharing a Netflix account, you know?
Now they’ve kinda changed that to, “okay, you’ve used these credentials, but are yo supposed to have the ability to submit this filing? The biggest change and difference is to maintain a list with the SEC of who is authorized to submit these filings.
The individual authorized need to go in and obtain certain autnehticaiotn tokens quite regularly
Before you only needed CIK/CCC…b ut now you need to maintain a list and get additional values to submit filings
BTW I’m so proud of my analogy I came up with that he used later!!! Like immediately after. I’m so tuned into Edgar hahahahha. Edgar, are you sure you’re not freaking Edward Cullen?
What change will be most disruptive going forward?
having to obtain those values
This used to be really easy before. You were good to file, set it - and forget it.
Know the values haven’t changed whether you did a filing last week or last year.
And now… the new authentication values are changing quite frequently. As frequently as every 30 days. That’s just one of the values.
Every time, you’re going to have to use MFA just to get that code.
Something you had something saved, and now you need to get a new value every time you have to file. Another link, another site and get those values every time you file.
That’s a pretty significant change in terms of the amount of time it takes to file
Common misconceptions from clients and internal (idk what he said)
who needs to be delegated to submit these filings
Whether you’re using a full service filer or you’re (idk)
BUT the SEC is now maintaining a list of who is authorized. So now only a small group need to be delegated - the ones submitting hte filings.
So there is a large misconception if you’re using a 3rd party, do you need to delegate them?
whoever is hitting submit needs to be authorized or delegated.
It says it’s live but it made me press play. But maybe it just needed to trigger on the video.
Now they’re just talking about the login process. This is for people who file.
Is that me? I don’t think so. I got invited to this event by email but I think it was more general invite, but this info is most informative for people who file.
But… of course retail investors are interested too! So many of us love to learn about this stuff and hear how accountability is being added back into the markets :)
BTW this isn’t really related to me, an individual investor PER SAY except that all of this is related hahahhahah.
To prevent any surprises… probably start enrolling as soon as possible. This change occurred in March, we’re about 2 months in. The SEC is giving everyone a 2 month window. We’re about 1/3 of the way through the transition here.
We have about 4 months to get enrolled, get setup, and get prepared. For every individual you’re filing for, not just your org. If you’re filing for 20 individuals, you’ll need to be processed 20 times and repeat it 20 times.
Start as soon as possible, get comfortable, do some test filings.
Make sure you know what you need to do when you have a filing, so you’re not running around trying to prepare to submit that filing.
What are some of the implications of not meeting your deadline?
well if you have a filing the day after September 15th, you’re going to have to go through a process the SEC gave you 6 months to do… in one day.
broooo 😂
So if you’re not familiar with what to do, how to obtain, what you need? It’s going to be pretty… tight…
There’s a reason they gave everyone 6 months. It’s a massive change. It’s the biggest change since they started accepting electronic filings
If you wait until September 16… you’re taking something the SEC thought woudl take you 6 months to prepare for and giving you 1 day.
September is going to be WACKy. wacky forever.
It’s important to get moving.
GEEZE! For real. Sounds like we’re 4 months away from some scrambling and cracking of eggs, huH? Just my take. Should be interesting here in 4 months.
Okay now they’re talking about filing and their platforms. They’re prepared for Edgar… Tehy were prepared on march 15!!
they’ve been workign closely with the SEC since 2023
This is a significant change. The most significant change we’ve ever seen.
They got in contact with the SEC two years ago to beta test it, work on design changes… and the design has changed a lot
But filers are already leveraging it!
Not everyone filing through the platform is doing this, cause it’s not mandatory until September
Ohhhhhhhh. :) so I seee
it’s good to see upfront those clients are prepared and ready to go.
What type of support are companies asking for?
the main type of support is enrollment.
Login accounts setup. Understanding nuances behind delegations, how to be an approved filer…
The actual transmission of the filing isn’t vastly different than it was before. You have to submit additional security tokens.
If you want to avoid issues, try not to wait until September.
How can Computershare help?
Filers can log directly into the platform.
The reason peopel find this helpful is because usually hte filing process is… you have to maintain info about the holdings of an insider and the transactions that are happening. Then you need to input it into the form.
The help maintain all historical filings - all the way back to 2008.
So even if you started it today or recently, we’d go back and import all the history to go look at it and see hte filings from years ago. We’d have the history in the platform.
THer’es no need to maintain a balanced spreadsheet outside the platform.
It’s why people find it helpful, streamlined, and a little bit easier to get things out the door.
Let’s talk more about how the platform helps solve legal and compliance challenges for teams
- btw this reminds me of that event I went to about avoiding insider trading. How you need to make choreography. ANd keep the insider team SMALL - for their own sake.
having a visible auditable, visible platform is really good in this industry
Footnotes included, in line as they go forward.
The SEC only knows what the issuer chooses to chair. It’s important as a issuer it’s important what you’ve shared with specific insiders. The holdings remain the same.
Even if the person submitting filings has changed.
What’s the typical usecase of a mid-sized company and how EDGAR Next can help?
You’re going to submit and obtain the info around the login accounts… do all your delegations, approvals - get yourself setup.
Make sure you can load tokens in prior to submitting the filings.
This systems supports a number of different workflows. The most common is the filer getting into the system, creating transactions, prepare the form (then it auto adds transactions), its automated. They support draft filings, if you need approval, you can print it out or email to supervisor, general onsite council, whatever you need.
a couple of workflows are common within the system.
It’s about getting the tokens, obtaining the tokens, and loading them into the system.
THe system will tell you when your tokens have expired. Some expired on 30 days, some on 6 months. The system will tell you when you need to redo it.
The token generation only takes a few minutes when everything is enrolled
Behind the scenes, we use these tokens to authenticate with the SEC to make sure you’re authorized. It won’t be possible to authentic any other way starting on September 15.
- and you have to do that today if someone became an insider before march 15. But you can still file through the legacy method until September 15.
Many people are scheduling the change over hte next 6 weeks.
NOW its the group Q&A from the audience.
How can I learn more about this Computershare solution?
There is info here to contact us.
We’re happy to talk about it, the services we have, and we’d love to have 1-on-1 time. Let us know you’re interested and we’ll follow up. We’re always happy to help.
Other future changes anticipated from the SEC?
it’s tough to say. It’s gone through changes, with recent administration, it’s hard to predict the future.
Since 2008 they haven’t made any changes at all… and they’ve been working on this for 4 years, two years was only talking. The solution has changed in this two year period.
The SEC is notorious for not making changes. But I can promise we are very tied in and regularly talking. If there are changes, we’re prepared.
Tokens: how frequently do they need to be refreshed when using the API?
-probably one of the top three most common that we’ve had.
These two tokens… one is specific to you (person submitting: the user token), then the filer token… its confusing cause you’re the filer. So having a token called the filer token has confused people. It’s specific to the organization. So you need a user for yourself and a filer for the org.
The user will have to be updated either every month or every couple of months
The one specific to your organization you refile every year.
How does computersahre stay up to date on the latest changes?
we work very closely with the SEC. WE have a lot of methods to stay up to date. You can monitor the website, look for press releases, subscribe to get any changes or proposed changes.
We have teams on mailing lists, their press releases.. to ensure we know what’s on the horizon.
This came up about two years ago now. From there, we worked with the SEC from the beta phase. We worked with a number of contacts there. We really just continued to monitor any announcements they make and work with our contacts there to make sure we have a correct interpretation. We get involved in any Betaphases they have.
We’ll make sure we continue to work with our contacts that participate
Then they just had a nice goodbye and that’s that!! hahah. I mean, a bit more but basically that.
Great!!! Wow. September sounds exciting, huh?
And I like that they’ve been working on this for four years. WHat else has been going on for four years? Idk - for me… WAITING FOR MOASS 😂
Overall Event Review Elaborated:
Venue: 5/5 - i like my home. I’m such a homebody lately and almost never leave. But… tomorrow I’m changing that.
Food: N/A. I did have good tea though. truthfullyl, its not that tasty, but it’s so freaking nutritious, local, and looseleaf. So I’m all about it.
Speaker Content 5/5: Lots of intersting stuff here, if you’re a big fan of stock market transparency, like me.
Networking: 0/5 (but 5/5) cause Computershare feels so approachable and I didn’t expect that... But Idk if thta was 100% live or semi-live, and I didn’t meet anyone hahahhaa.
Likeliness to Return: 5/5 - i was a little terrified to go to this event, just pulling up a seat hahahah. It’s so official. But it was a million times better than expected and I’d totally attend another and keep learning.
Until next time, I wish you the motivation and success to search for opportunities around your area. Search and explore: Who is out there giving talks? There are new things happening all of the time
Find relatable or interesting topics you like and check them out! Maybe even something hosted at a cool venue, if there’s no other reason to go. Let’s see what you can learn and discover not too far from home. 😊
