SEC Chairman Paul S. Atkins told the Investor Advisory Committee on Thursday that the Commission will keep its focus on two investor-protection issues: expanding retail access to private markets and the growing concentration of voting power in passive investment vehicles.
The remarks, delivered at the IAC’s quarterly meeting, followed expert panels on both topics.
On private markets, Atkins said the IAC’s work would help shape how the SEC balances innovation with investor protection. The agency held a Private Markets Roundtable in March to discuss how asset classes historically offered in private markets are moving into publicly offered vehicles.
A September 2025 IAC recommendation said private funds had grown to more than $28 trillion in assets.
“Embracing growth and innovation across all asset classes, and promoting orderly markets and investor protection, are not mutually exclusive aims; they are compatible goals,” Atkins said.
On proxy voting, Atkins said assessing how passive vehicles vote, and the influence of proxy advisers on those votes, had been a priority under his leadership. He said investment advisers, as fiduciaries, “must vote client proxies in their client’s best interest and not their own.”
Atkins also welcomed four new IAC members and congratulated new executive committee leaders.
