[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 182 (Tuesday, September 21, 1999)]
[Notices]
[Pages 51150-51152]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-24548]


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SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

[Rel. No. IC-24015; No. 812-11624]


Evergreen Variable Annuity Trust, et al.; Notice of Application

September 15, 1999.
AGENCY: Securities and Exchange Commission (``SEC'' or ``Commission'').

ACTION: Notice of Application for an amended order pursuant to Section 
6(c) of the Investment Company Act of 1940 (``Act'') granting relief 
from Sections 9(a), 13(a), 15(a) and 15(b) of the Act and Rules 6e-
2(b)(15) and 6e-3(T)(b)(15) thereunder.

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Summary of Application

    Applicants seek an amended order to permit shares of any current or 
future series of the Evergreen Variable Annuity Trust (``Trust'') and 
shares of any other investment company that is designed to fund 
insurance products or to serve as an investment vehicle for qualified 
pension and retirement plans and for which Evergreen Asset Management 
Corp. (``Evergreen Asset'') or any of its affiliates may now or in the 
future serve as investment adviser, administrator, manager, principal 
underwriter or sponsor (the Trust and such other investment company are 
hereinafter referred to collectively as the ``Funds'') to be sold and 
held by the investment adviser of any Fund (the ``Adviser'' and, 
collectively, the ``Advisers'') or any of the Adviser's affiliates.

Applicants

    Evergreen Variable Annuity Trust and Evergreen Asset Management 
Corp.

Filing Date

    The application was originally filed on May 21, 1999, and amended 
and restated on July 30, 1999.

Hearing and Notification of Hearing

    An order granting the application will be issued unless the SEC 
orders a hearing. Interested persons may request a hearing by writing 
the Secretary of the SEC and serving Applicants with a copy of the 
request, in person or by mail. Hearing requests should be received by 
the SEC by 5:30 p.m. on October 12, 1999, and should be accompanied by 
proof of service on Applicants, in the form of an affidavit or, for 
lawyers, a certificate of service. Hearing requests should state the 
nature of the writer's interest, the reason for the request, and the 
issues contested. Persons who wish to be notified of a hearing may 
request notification of a hearing by writing to the Secretary of the 
SEC.

ADDRESSES: Secretary, SEC, 450 Fifth Street, NW, Washington, DC 20549-
0609. Applicants, c/o Sullivan & Worcester, LLP, 1025 Connecticut 
Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20036, Attention: Robert N. Hickey, Esq.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Michael D. Pappas, Senior Counsel, or 
Susan M. Olson, Branch Chief, Office of Insurance Products, Division of 
Investment Management at (202) 942-0670.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The following is a summary of the 
application. The complete application is available for a fee from the 
SEC's Public Reference Branch, 450 Fifth Street, NW, Washington, DC 
20549-0102, (202-942-8090).

Applicant's Representations

    1. The Trust was organized in June 1994 as a Massachusetts business 
trust and is registered as an open-end management investment company 
under the Act. The Trust was reorganized as a Delaware business trust 
on April 30, 1998. The Trust consists of separately managed series and 
additional series of the Trust may be created in the future.
    2. Evergreen Asset serves as Adviser for certain of the Trust's 
series. Evergreen Asset is a wholly-owned subsidiary of First Union 
National Bank of North Carolina (``FUNB''). FUNB and certain of its 
other investment advisory affiliates serve as Advisers to certain funds 
or series of the Trust. FUNB is a national bank, which is a wholly-
owned subsidiary (except for director's qualifying shares) of First 
Union Corporation, the sixth largest bank holding company in the nation 
(based on June 30, 1999 total assets). Evergreen Asset is registered 
under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940.
    3. Shares of the Funds are currently offered to separate accounts 
of various unaffiliated insurance companies to serve as the investment 
medium for variable annuity contracts and variable life insurance 
policies issued by such companies (``Participating Insurance 
Companies''). Shares of the Funds also may be offered to qualified 
pension and retirement plans outside the separate account context 
(``Qualified Plans''). In addition, shares of a Fund may also be 
offered to an Adviser or an affiliate of the Adviser for the purposes 
of providing necessary capital required by Section 14(a) of the Act or 
for other investment purposes, in compliance with Treasury Regulation 
1.817-5(f)(3).
    4. On March 5, 1996, the Commission issued an order granting relief 
with respect to shares of the Funds to be sold to and held by (a) 
variable annuity and variable life insurance separate accounts of both 
affiliated and unaffiliated Participating Insurance Companies and (b) 
Qualified Plans (Investment Company Act Release No. 21806, File No. 
812-9856) (the ``Original Order''). The Applicants incorporated by 
reference into their application the Application for the Original Order 
and any amendments thereto, the Notice of Application for the Original 
Order and the Original Order.\1\
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    \1\ Applicants represent that all of the facts asserted in the 
Application for the Original Order and any amendments thereto remain 
true and accurate in all material respects to the extent that such 
facts are relevant to any relief on which Applicants continue to 
rely.
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    5. The Original Order did not address the sale of shares of the 
Funds to the Advisers or their affiliates in compliance with Treasury 
Regulation 1.817-5(f)(3) representing seed money or other investments 
in a Fund. Applicants propose that the Funds be permitted to offer and 
sell their shares to Advisers and their affiliates in compliance with 
Treasury Regulation 1.817-5(f)(3).

Applicants' Legal Analysis

    1. Section 6(c) of the Act provides, in part, that the Commission, 
by order upon application, may conditionally or unconditionally exempt 
any person, security or transaction, or any class or classes of 
persons, securities or transactions from any provision of the Act or 
the rules or regulations thereunder, if and to the extent that such 
exemption is necessary or appropriate in the public interest and 
consistent with the protection of investors and the purposes fairly 
intended by the policy and provisions of the Act.
    2. Applicants request that the Commission issue an amended order 
pursuant to Section 6(c) of the Act for exemptions from the provisions 
of Sections 9(a), 13(a), 15(a) and 15(b) of the Act and Rules 6e-
2(b)(15) and 6e-3(T)(b)(15) (and any comparable rule) thereunder, 
respectively, to the extent necessary to permit shares of the Funds to 
be sold to and held by the Funds' Advisers or any of its affiliates in 
compliance with Treasury Regulation

[[Page 51151]]

1.817-5(f)(3) (representing seed money or other investments in the 
Funds).
    3. In connection with scheduled premium variable life insurance 
contracts issued through a separate account registered under the Act as 
a unit investment trust, Rule 6e-2(b)(15) provides partial exemptions 
from Section 9(a) and from Sections 13(a), 15(a) and 15(b) of the Act 
to the extent that those Sections have been deemed by the Commission to 
require ``pass-through'' voting with respect to an underlying 
investment company's shares. The exemptions granted to a separate 
account by Rule 6e-2(b)(15) are available only where all of the assets 
of the separate account consist of the shares of one or more registered 
managed investment companies which offer their shares exclusively to 
variable insurance separate accounts of the life insurer or any 
affiliated life insurance company. Therefore, the relief provided by 
Rule 6e-2(b)(15) is not available with respect to a scheduled premium 
variable life insurance separate account that owns shares of an 
investment company that also offers its shares to a variable annuity 
separate account or a flexible premium variable life insurance separate 
account of the insurer or of any affiliated insurance company (mixed 
funding). In addition, the relief granted by Rule 6e-2(b)(15) is not 
available if the shares of the underlying investment company are 
offered to variable life insurance separate accounts of unaffiliated 
insurance companies (shared funding).
    4. Moreover, because the relief under Rule 6e-2(b)(15) is available 
only where shares of the investment company are offered exclusively to 
separate accounts, exemptive relief is necessary if the shares of the 
Funds are also to be sold to the Advisers or their affiliates.
    5. In connection with flexible premium variable life insurance 
contracts issued through a separate account registered under the Act as 
a unit investment trust, Rule 6e-3(T)(b)(15) provides partial 
exemptions from Section 9(a) and from Sections 13(a), 15(a) and 15(b) 
of the Act to the extent those Sections have been deemed by the 
Commission to require ``pass-through'' voting with respect to an 
underlying investment company's shares. The exemptions granted to a 
separate account by Rule 6e-3(T)(b)(15) are available only where all of 
the assets of the separate account consist of the shares of one or more 
registered management investment companies which offer their shares 
exclusively to separate accounts of the life insurer, or any affiliated 
life insurance company, offering either scheduled premium variable life 
insurance contracts or flexible premium variable life insurance 
contracts, or both; or which also offer their shares to variable 
annuity separate accounts of the life insurer or an affiliated life 
insurance company. Therefore, Rule 6e-3(T)(b)(15) permits mixed funding 
for a flexible premium variable life insurance separate account under 
certain circumstances. The rule does not, however, permit shared 
funding, because relief granted by Rule 6e-3(T)(b)(15) is not available 
with respect to a flexible premium variable life insurance separate 
account that owns shares of an investment company that also offers its 
shares to separate accounts (including flexible premium variable life 
insurance separate accounts) of unaffiliated insurance companies.
    6. Because the relief under rule 6e-3(T)(b)(15) is available only 
where shares of the investment company are offered exclusively to 
separate accounts, exemptive relief is necessary if the shares of the 
Funds are also to be sold to the Advisers or their affiliates.
    7. Applicants assert that the relief granted by Rules 6e-2(b)(15) 
and 6e-3(T)(b)(15) is in no way affected by the purchase of the Funds' 
shares by Advisers or their affiliates. However, in that relief under 
Rules 6e-2(b)(15) and 6e-3(T)(b)(15) is available only where shares are 
offered exclusively to separate accounts, it is Applicants' concern 
that additional exemptive relief may be necessary if the shares of the 
Funds are also to be sold to Advisers or their affiliates. Applicants 
therefore request relief in order to have the Participating Insurance 
Companies enjoy the benefits of the relief granted in Rules 6e-2(b)(15) 
and 6e-3(T)(b)(15). Applicants assert that if the Funds were to sell 
shares only to Advisers or their affiliates and/or separate accounts 
funding variable annuity contracts, no exemptive relief would be 
necessary. None of the relief provided for in Rules 6e-2(b)(15) and 6e-
3(T)(b)(15) relates to Advisers or their affiliates, or to a registered 
investment company's ability to sell its shares to such purchasers. It 
is only because some of the separate accounts that may invest in the 
Funds may themselves be investment companies that rely upon Rules 6e-2 
and 6e-3(T) and that desire to have relief continue in place, that the 
Applicants are applying for the requested relief.
    8. In addition to permitting sales of a Fund's shares to 
Participating Insurance Companies and Qualified plans, Treasury 
Regulation 1.817-5(f)(3) permits, subject to certain conditions, a Fund 
to sell shares to the Adviser and its affiliates.
    9. The promulgation of Rules 6e-2(b)(15) and 6e-3(T)(b)(15) under 
the Act preceded the issuance of the Treasury Regulation. Thus, the 
sale of shares of the same investment company to separate accounts, 
through which variable life insurance contracts are issued, and to the 
Adviser or its affiliates was not contemplated at the time of the 
adoption of Rules 6e-2(b)(15) and 6e-3(T)(b)(15).
    10. Applicants believe that there is no regulatory purpose in 
extending the monitoring requirements of Section 9(a) of the Act 
because the Funds may sell their shares to an Adviser or its affiliate. 
Rules 6e-3 and 6e-3(T) provide relief from the eligibility restrictions 
of Section 9(a) only for officers, directors or employees of 
Participating Insurance Companies or their affiliates. The eligibility 
restrictions of Section 9(a) will still apply to any officers, 
directors or employees of the Adviser or an affiliate who participate 
directly in the management or administration of a Fund. Furthermore, 
there is no reason why the monitoring requirements should extend to all 
officers, directors and employees of Participating Insurance Companies 
and their affiliates simply because the Funds sell certain shares to an 
Adviser or its affiliate. This monitoring would not benefit contract 
owners and Qualified Plan participants and would only increase costs, 
thus reducing net rates of return.
    11. With respect to ``pass-through'' voting requirements of 
Sections 13(a), 15(a) and 15(b) of the Act and the partial exemptions 
therefrom provided by Rules 6e-2(b)(15) and 6e-3(T)(b)(15), Applicants 
believe that the exercise of voting rights by the Advisers and their 
affiliates do not present the type of issues respecting the disregard 
of voting rights that are presented by variable contract separate 
accounts. Applicants have concluded that the inclusion of Advisers and 
their affiliates as eligible shareholders should not increase the risk 
of irreconcilable material conflicts among shareholders. Any Adviser or 
its affiliate that purchases Fund shares will agree to vote its shares 
of the fund in the same proportion as all contract owners having voting 
rights with respect to that Fund or in such other manner as may be 
required by the Commission or its staff. Therefore, the Applicants 
believe that allowing Advisers and their affiliates to purchase shares 
of the Funds should not increase the opportunity for conflicts of 
interest.
    12. Applicants argue that the ability of the funds to sell their 
shares directly to Advisers and their affiliates does not

[[Page 51152]]

create a ``senior security'' as such term is defined in Section 18(g) 
of the Act, with respect to any contract owner or Qualified Plan 
participant as opposed to an Adviser or its affiliate. Each shareholder 
has rights only with respect to its respective shares of the Funds. 
Shareholders can only redeem such shares at their net asset value. No 
shareholder of any of the funds has any preference over any other 
shareholder with respect to distribution of assets or payment of 
dividends.
    13. Applicants assert that permitting a Fund to sell its shares to 
an Adviser of a Fund or to an affiliate of an Adviser, in compliance 
with Treasury Regulation 1.817-5(f)(3) will enhance Fund management 
without raising significant concerns regarding irreconcilable material 
conflicts. Section 14(a) of the Act generally requires that an 
investment company have a net worth of at least $100,000 upon making a 
public offering of its shares. Funds also will require more limited 
amounts of initial capital in connection with the creation of new 
series and the voting of initial shares of such series on matters 
requiring the approval of shareholders. In addition, the funds may wish 
to purchase a substantial portfolio of securities upon commencement of 
operations and will require capital to do so. A potential source of the 
requisite initial capital is an Adviser or an affiliate. These parties 
may have an interest in making the requisite capital expenditure, and 
in participating with the fund in its organization. However, Applicants 
submit that the provision of seed capital or the purchase of shares in 
connection with the management of a Fund by its Adviser or an affiliate 
of the Adviser may be deemed to violate the exclusivity requirements of 
Rule 6e-2(b)(15) and/or Rule 6e-3(T)(b)(15).
    14. Applicants anticipate that such investment by an Adviser or its 
affiliate generally will be limited in scope and duration, and will be 
made only in connection with the operation of the Funds. Given the 
conditions of Treasury Regulation 1.817-5(f)(3) as described herein and 
the harmony of interest between a Fund, on the one hand, and its 
Adviser, on the other, Applicants assert that little incentive for 
overreaching exists. Furthermore, such limited investments should not 
implicate the concerns discussed above regarding the creation of 
irreconcilable material conflicts. Instead, permitting investment by 
Advisers or their affiliates will permit the orderly and efficient 
creation and operation of Funds, or series thereof, and reduce the 
expense and uncertainty of using outside parties at the early stages of 
Fund operations. The return on shares held by an Adviser or its 
affiliate will be calculated in the same manner as for shares held by a 
separate account. Any shares of a Fund purchased by the Adviser or its 
affiliate will be automatically redeemed if and when the Adviser's 
investment advisory agreement terminates, to the extent required by 
applicable Treasury Regulations. Neither the Adviser nor its affiliate 
will sell such shares of the Fund to the public.

Applicants' Conditions

    Applicants have consented to the following conditions, in addition 
to the conditions set forth in the Original Order:
    1. The Adviser or an affiliate, all Participating Insurance 
Companies and any Qualified Plan that executes a fund participation 
agreement upon becoming the owner of 10% or more of the shares of a 
Fund (``Participating Plan'') will be promptly informed in writing of 
any determination of the Board of Trustees of the Trust that an 
irreconcilable material conflict exists, and its implications.
    2. As long as the Commission interprets the Act to require ``pass-
through'' voting privileges for contract owners, whose contracts are 
funded through a separate account, an Adviser, or if applicable, any of 
its affiliates, will vote its shares of any Fund in the same proportion 
as all variable contract owners having voting rights with respect to 
the Fund; provided, however, that the Adviser or any such affiliate 
shall vote its shares in such other manner as may be required by the 
Commission staff.
    3. All reports of potential or existing conflicts received by the 
Board of Trustees of the Trust, and all Board action with regard to 
determining the existence of a conflict, notifying the Adviser or any 
of its affiliates, Participating Insurance Companies and Participating 
Plans of a conflict, and determining whether any proposed action 
adequately remedies a conflict, will be properly recorded in the 
minutes of the appropriate Board or other appropriate records, and such 
minutes or other records shall be made available to the Commission upon 
request.

Conclusion

    For the reasons set forth above. Applicants represent that the 
exemptions requested are necessary and appropriate in the public 
interest and consistent with the protection of investors and purposes 
fairly intended by the policy and provisions of the Act.

    For the Commission, by the Division of Investment Management, 
pursuant to delegated authority.
Margaret H. McFarland,
Deputy Secretary.
[FR Doc. 99-24548 Filed 9-20-99; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8010-01-M