Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request; Extension: Rule 498A

Upon Written Request, Copies Available From: Securities and Exchange Commission, Office of FOIA Services, 100 F Street NE, Washington, DC 20549–2736

Notice is hereby given that, pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (“Paperwork Reduction Act”) (44 U.S.C. 3501–3520), the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “Commission”) has submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (“OMB”) a request for extension of the previously approved collection of information discussed below.

Rule 498A under the Securities Act permits a person to satisfy its prospectus delivery obligations under section 5(b)(2) of the Securities Act for a contract by: (1) sending or giving to new investors key information contained in a variable contract statutory prospectus in the form of an initial summary prospectus; (2) sending or giving to existing investors each year a brief description of certain changes to the contract, and a subset of the information in the initial summary prospectus, in the form of an updating summary prospectus; and (3) providing the statutory prospectus and other materials online. Rule 498A considers a person to have met its prospectus delivery obligations for any portfolio companies associated with a variable contract if the portfolio company prospectuses are posted online. Under the rule, a registrant (or the financial intermediary distributing the variable contract) relying on the rule must send the variable contract statutory prospectus (that statutory prospectus must be filed as part of registration statement on Form N–3, N–4, or N–6, as applicable) and other materials to an investor in paper or electronic format upon request.

Based on an analysis of fund filings, we estimate that 82% of variable contracts that filed annual updates to their registration statements use at least one summary prospectus under rule 498A. In the aggregate, the Commission staff estimates the total annual hour burden to comply with rule 498A to be 7,634 hours, at an internal time cost equivalent of $2,337,471, and a total annual external cost burden of $9,094,866.

The estimate of average burden hours is made solely for the purposes of the Paperwork Reduction Act. The estimate is based on communications with industry representatives, and is not derived from a comprehensive or even a representative survey or study.

Responses will not be kept confidential. An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number.

The public may view background documentation for this information collection at the following website: www.reginfo.gov. Find this particular information collection by selecting “Currently under 30-day Review—Open for Public Comments” or by using the search function. Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information collection should be sent within 30 days of publication of this notice by January 2, 2024 to (i) MBX.OMB.OIRA.SEC_desk_officer@omb.eop.gov and (ii) David Bottom, Director/Chief Information Officer, Securities and Exchange Commission, c/o John Pezzullo, 100 F Street NE, Washington, DC 20549, or by sending an email to: PRA_Mailbox@sec.gov.