Form 40-17G Files Dataset

The Form 40-17G Files Dataset is a complete archive of fidelity bond filings submitted to EDGAR by registered management investment companies under Rule 17g-1(g) of the Investment Company Act of 1940. One record is one EDGAR submission — original filings of form type 40-17G and amendments of form type 40-17G/A — packaged as an accession number folder containing a metadata.json manifest and every primary and exhibit document the filer attached, in their native HTML and PDF form. The filer is the registrant fund itself (mutual fund, closed-end fund, ETF, or business development company), and the dataset captures the executed fidelity bond, the disinterested-director resolutions approving it, the secretary's certification, the premium-paid confirmation, and — for joint-insured fund families — the fidelity bond sharing agreement and the full named-insured roster. Coverage runs from January 2002 to the present, distributed as monthly ZIP containers.

Dataset APIs

Dataset Files

What This Dataset Contains

The dataset packages every Form 40-17G and Form 40-17G/A submission accepted by EDGAR from January 2002 onward. Form 40-17G is the cover form for the executed fidelity bond that a registered management investment company (and many business development companies) must obtain to protect itself against larceny and embezzlement by officers and employees with access to the company's securities or funds. The filing must be made within ten days of receipt of the executed bond. It functions primarily as a transmittal vehicle for four kinds of legal evidence:

1. the fidelity bond instrument itself, in executed form;
2. a certified copy of the resolution adopted by a majority of the directors who are not "interested persons" of the registrant approving the form and amount of the bond;
3. a statement confirming the period for which premiums have been paid; and
4. when the bond covers more than one registrant, a copy of the joint-insured (fidelity-bond sharing) agreement entered into among the named insureds.

The filing is documentary and evidentiary. It carries no XBRL or other structured financial data; the substantive content lives entirely in the attached HTML pages and PDF reproductions of legal instruments. The dataset preserves the substantive contents of the EDGAR submission verbatim, with two file classes intentionally not extracted to disk: GRAPHIC-tagged image files (JPG/GIF/PNG) referenced from the HTML for logos, signatures, and scanned exhibits, and the SGML "complete submission text file" (<accession>.txt) that EDGAR uses as a transport wrapper. Both remain enumerated in the metadata manifest with their original EDGAR URLs. Records are distributed in monthly ZIP containers; file types inside a record are HTML, PDF, JSON, and TXT.

Content Structure of a Single Record

One record in the Form 40-17G Files dataset is a complete EDGAR submission of a fidelity bond filing made under Rule 17g-1(g) of the Investment Company Act of 1940, identified by its 18-digit accession number. Each record materializes as one accession-number folder inside the dataset's monthly ZIP container; the folder always holds a metadata.json describing the submission and one or more attached documents (HTML and/or PDF) that constitute the filer's actual disclosure to the Commission. Both original filings (formType: "40-17G") and amendments (formType: "40-17G/A") are packaged identically and are distinguished only by the formType value and by the document-type label on the primary document.

Container shape of one record

Each record occupies a folder named after the accession number with dashes stripped (for example, folder 000113322825011083 corresponds to accession 0001133228-25-011083). Inside the folder:

• exactly one metadata.json describing the submission and listing every file that was part of the original EDGAR submission, including the items not extracted to disk;
• one or more attached documents in HTML (.htm/.html) and/or PDF (.pdf) form. HTML files retain the SGML <DOCUMENT> envelope that EDGAR prepends; PDF files are stored as raw binaries.

Document counts per accession range from a single combined PDF (one filer bundling everything into one scanned file) through a transmittal letter plus five exhibits (joint-insured fund-family filings). On-disk size per folder ranges from a few kilobytes for a short amendment to several megabytes for a scanned multi-page bond bundle.

The dataset omits two file classes from on-disk extraction: GRAPHIC-typed image files referenced from the HTML, and the <accession>.txt complete submission text file (which is the SGML concatenation of every document in the submission and thus structurally redundant with the per-document files). Both remain listed in metadata.json under documentFormatFiles[], so the metadata is a faithful manifest of the original EDGAR submission even when the corresponding bytes are not present in the folder.

metadata.json anatomy

metadata.json is a single JSON object with a fixed schema. Top-level scalar fields position the filing in EDGAR's record system:

• formType — "40-17G" for an original filing, "40-17G/A" for an amendment.
• accessionNo — the dashed EDGAR accession number, e.g. "0001193125-25-242180". The folder name is the same string with dashes removed.
• effectivenessDate — SEC effective date in YYYY-MM-DD form.
• filedAt — ISO-8601 timestamp with timezone offset (Eastern Time), e.g. "2025-10-17T11:56:54-04:00".
• description — the human-readable form description, typically "Form 40-17G - Fidelity Bond [Rule 17G-1(g)]" or, for amendments, the same string suffixed with : [Amend].
• linkToFilingDetails — direct URL on www.sec.gov to the primary document (the HTML or PDF that EDGAR considers document 1).
• linkToTxt — URL to the SGML complete-submission text file on EDGAR.
• linkToHtml — URL to the EDGAR filing-index page (...-index.htm).
• linkToXbrl — schema field present for cross-form uniformity; empty for 40-17G, which has no XBRL counterpart.
• id — a 32-character hexadecimal record identifier.

Two array fields exist in the schema for cross-form uniformity but are empty for this form type:

• seriesAndClassesContractsInformation — series/class identifiers are not part of the 40-17G filing model.
• dataFiles — there are no XBRL data files associated with a fidelity bond filing.

The two substantive arrays are documentFormatFiles[] and entities[].

documentFormatFiles[]

This array is the canonical manifest of the original EDGAR submission. It contains one element per file the filer transmitted, including image files and the SGML wrapper that the dataset does not extract to disk. Each element carries:

• sequence — string sequence number assigned by EDGAR ("1", "2", ...). The complete-submission text file uses a single space " " instead of a numeral.
• type — the document-type label. The most common values are:
  • "40-17G" or "40-17G/A" — primary/cover document
  • "[EX-99.1](https://www.sec.gov/files/edgar/filermanual/efmvol2-c5.pdf)", "[EX-99.2](https://www.sec.gov/files/edgar/filermanual/efmvol2-c5.pdf)", "[EX-99.3](https://www.sec.gov/files/edgar/filermanual/efmvol2-c5.pdf)" — Arabic-numeral exhibit numbering used by some filers
  • "EX-99.(I)", "EX-99.(II)", "EX-99.(III)", "EX-99.(IV)", "EX-99.(V)" — Roman-numeral exhibit numbering used by other filers, notably the largest fund complexes
  • "GRAPHIC" — image attachments (not extracted to disk)
  • " " (single space) — the wrapping <accession>.txt complete submission text file
• description — the filer-supplied free-text label. This is where the substantive role of each exhibit is named. Typical values include "FIDELITY BOND", "CERTIFIED RESOLUTIONS", "SINGLE INSURED STATEMENT", "PREMIUMS PAID CONFIRMATION", "FIDELITY BOND SHARING AGREEMENT", and combined labels such as "BOND, ADDENDUM, TRANSMITTAL LETTER, SEC. CERTIFICATE" when one file concatenates several pieces.
• documentUrl — the direct EDGAR URL to the file.
• size — the file size in bytes, encoded as a string.

Because both numbering conventions (EX-99.1...3 and EX-99.(I)...(V)) are in active use, and because some filers concatenate multiple regulatory components into a single exhibit, the type token is not a closed vocabulary and does not by itself reveal what an exhibit contains. Downstream consumers should rely on the description field to identify which exhibit holds the bond, the resolutions, the single-insured statement, the premium confirmation, or the sharing agreement.

entities[]

This array lists every filer entity that joined the submission. A simple original filing by a single registrant has one entity; joint-insured filings list every fund or trust that is a named insured under the shared bond, frequently dozens of entities for a single fund-family accession and sometimes more than fifty. Per-entity fields:

• cik — the SEC central index key.
• companyName — the fund or trust name, suffixed with the role token (Filer).
• type — the form type repeated at the entity level ("40-17G" or "40-17G/A").
• act — the securities-act code, always "40" for the Investment Company Act of 1940.
• fileNo — the SEC file number. Most entities are 811- series (registered investment companies); business development companies appear with 814- series file numbers.
• filmNo — the EDGAR film number assigned at filing time.
• irsNo — the Employer Identification Number, or "000000000" if not supplied.
• fiscalYearEnd — MMDD (e.g. "1231", "0930", "1031"); occasionally absent for individual entities in long joint-insured rosters.
• stateOfIncorporation — two-letter U.S. state code ("DE", "MA", "MD", "NY" are dominant for fund vehicles); occasionally absent.

When a 40-17G is filed jointly, entities[] is the most reliable place in the record to enumerate the joint-insured group. The bond instrument and the sharing agreement do list the named insureds in their internal schedules or riders, but those schedules sit inside scanned PDFs or HTML tables of varying layout; the metadata array is the authoritative machine-readable roster.

Document-content anatomy

Attached documents fall into two physical formats: HTML with an SGML wrapper, and standalone PDF.

HTML with SGML envelope

HTML documents preserve the EDGAR-prepended SGML <DOCUMENT> envelope at the top of the file. The envelope contains the <TYPE>, <SEQUENCE>, <FILENAME>, and <DESCRIPTION> tags followed by <TEXT> and the <HTML> body. A primary 40-17G HTML document's wrapper looks like:

          1
          <DOCUMENT>
        

          2
          <TYPE>40-17G
        

          3
          <SEQUENCE>1
        

          4
          <FILENAME>investment83_4017g.htm
        

          5
          <DESCRIPTION>40-17G
        

          6
          <TEXT>
        

          7
          <HTML>... rendered HTML body ...</HTML>
        

          8
          </TEXT>
        

          9
          </DOCUMENT>
        

Each exhibit uses the same envelope with its own <TYPE> and <DESCRIPTION>, e.g.:

          1
          <DOCUMENT>
        

          2
          <TYPE>EX-99.(II)
        

          3
          <SEQUENCE>3
        

          4
          <FILENAME>evgt-efp18578_ex99ii.htm
        

          5
          <DESCRIPTION>CERTIFIED RESOLUTIONS
        

          6
          <TEXT>
        

          7
          <HTML>... Secretary's certificate and board resolutions ...</HTML>
        

          8
          </TEXT>
        

          9
          </DOCUMENT>
        

Parsers expecting strictly well-formed HTML must tolerate this preamble or strip it before invoking an HTML parser.

PDF

PDF documents are stored as raw binary .pdf files with no SGML wrapper. They typically hold scanned or print-formatted reproductions of the same materials — an executed bond with the insurer's signature and seal, the secretary's certificate of board approval, the transmittal letter on registrant letterhead, and any addenda or riders. A single PDF is sometimes a concatenated bundle containing all required pieces; the description field on such a file enumerates the contents (for example, "BOND, ADDENDUM, TRANSMITTAL LETTER, SEC. CERTIFICATE").

Single-issuer versus joint-insured patterns

Filings cluster into two structural patterns that drive both document layout and entity-array length.

Single-issuer filings. A single registered fund or business development company files the bond covering only its own organization. The entities[] array has one element. The submission is typically one or two documents: either an HTML primary 40-17G that embeds the secretary's certificate and the board-resolution language inline (occasionally accompanied by one or two exhibits for the bond instrument and the premium confirmation), or a single combined PDF that bundles bond, addenda, transmittal letter, and certificate into one file.

Joint-insured filings. A fund family or affiliated group of registered funds shares a single fidelity bond. The entities[] array carries many elements — frequently dozens, sometimes more than fifty for the largest complexes. The documents are split along the regulatory components of the filing: a transmittal letter typed 40-17G, then discrete exhibits commonly numbered EX-99.(I) through EX-99.(V) and labeled, in order:

• EX-99.(I) — FIDELITY BOND. The executed bond instrument, almost always the largest exhibit.
• EX-99.(II) — CERTIFIED RESOLUTIONS. The resolutions of the disinterested directors approving the bond's form and amount, with the secretary's certificate.
• EX-99.(III) — SINGLE INSURED STATEMENT. The calculation of what each fund's bond would have been if obtained alone, required for joint bonds.
• EX-99.(IV) — PREMIUMS PAID CONFIRMATION. The period for which premiums have been paid.
• EX-99.(V) — FIDELITY BOND SHARING AGREEMENT. The contractual allocation of any recoveries among the named insureds in the event of a loss.

Some filers use the Arabic-numeral series EX-99.1, EX-99.2, EX-99.3 and group the same regulatory content into fewer exhibits; the substantive components are the same.

Form 40-17G versus 40-17G/A

Original filings and amendments are packaged identically. A 40-17G/A is an amendment to a previously submitted fidelity bond filing — typically used to substitute a corrected exhibit, replace the bond instrument with a re-executed copy, update the premium confirmation, or correct the membership of the joint-insured group. Amendments are usually short single-document filings; their description field carries the suffix : [Amend] and the primary document's type is 40-17G/A. Amendments are not cumulative — many contain only the changed exhibit — so consumers who need the full as-amended record must read the original 40-17G accession together with all subsequent 40-17G/A accessions filed by the same registrant.

What is included and what is excluded

Included for every accession: the JSON metadata object (with all scalar identifiers, the document manifest, and the full filer-entity roster) and every primary and exhibit document the filer attached, in their native HTML or PDF form. HTML files retain the SGML <DOCUMENT> envelope as written by EDGAR.

Excluded: image files (JPG, GIF, PNG) tagged as GRAPHIC in the EDGAR submission, and the <accession>.txt complete-submission text file. Both remain enumerated inside documentFormatFiles[] with their original documentUrl, so they can be retrieved from EDGAR when needed; only their bytes are absent from the dataset folder. The complete-submission text file is omitted because it is the SGML concatenation of every document in the submission and is therefore redundant with the per-document files already extracted.

The XBRL-related schema fields (linkToXbrl, dataFiles) and the series/class field (seriesAndClassesContractsInformation) are present in the JSON for cross-form uniformity but are always empty for this form type.

Evolution of the record format since 2002

The dataset begins with January 2002 filings. The substantive disclosure obligations under Rule 17g-1(g) — executed bond, board resolutions of the disinterested directors, premium confirmation, joint-insured sharing agreement when applicable — have remained essentially constant throughout the dataset's coverage. What has changed is presentation:

• Early 2000s filings are dominated by scanned PDF submissions, often a single combined PDF concatenating the transmittal letter, the executed bond, the certified resolutions, and the secretary's certificate. Some early filings appear as ASCII/plain-text submissions with the bond and resolutions transcribed into the body of the SGML wrapper. Exhibit numbering in this era is irregular and often absent — many early filings have only a primary 40-17G document type with no separately tagged exhibits.
• Mid- and late-2000s filings show a gradual transition toward HTML primary documents accompanied by separately tagged PDF exhibits for the scanned bond instrument and signed resolutions. EDGAR's EX-99.x exhibit-typing convention becomes more consistent, and joint-insured filings begin to break their content into discrete exhibits rather than bundling everything into one PDF.
• Modern filings (roughly 2015 onward) are predominantly multi-document HTML submissions. Large fund complexes consistently use the EX-99.(I) through EX-99.(V) Roman-numeral pattern; smaller filers use EX-99.1, EX-99.2, EX-99.3. The description field on each document is reliably populated with the substantive role of the exhibit, which makes modern records substantially more amenable to programmatic classification than early-era filings.
• Joint-insured roster size has grown over time as fund families consolidated and as more business development companies adopted joint bonds, so the entities[] array is longer in modern accessions; an early-2000s joint filing might list a handful of funds, while a modern one can list dozens.

Interpretation notes

Several characteristics matter for downstream consumers:

• Identify exhibits by description, not by type. Because filers split the regulatory components of a fidelity bond filing across exhibits inconsistently — some bundle the bond and resolutions into EX-99.1, others assign one Roman numeral per component — the type field is not sufficient to identify which exhibit carries which content. The filer-supplied description field is the reliable signal.
• The joint-insured roster lives in the metadata. The entities[] array is the most reliable enumeration of joint-insured group membership. The bond instrument and the sharing agreement do list the named insureds in their internal schedules, but those schedules are embedded in scanned PDFs or HTML tables that vary widely in layout.
• Amendment semantics are partial, not cumulative. A 40-17G/A typically contains only the changed material. Reconstructing the full as-amended bond filing requires reading the original 40-17G together with all subsequent 40-17G/A accessions filed by the same registrant.
• Scanned PDFs require OCR. A non-trivial fraction of bond instruments and certified resolutions, particularly in the older portion of the dataset, are scanned images packaged as PDFs and are not text-searchable without OCR. The GRAPHIC images that some HTML documents reference for signatures and seals are intentionally not included in the dataset.
• SGML wrapper preserved on HTML. HTML documents retain EDGAR's <DOCUMENT> / <TYPE> / <SEQUENCE> / <FILENAME> / <DESCRIPTION> / <TEXT> envelope at the top of the file. Parsers expecting well-formed HTML must tolerate this preamble or strip it first.
• One folder equals one submission, regardless of joint-filer count. A single accession folder represents one EDGAR submission regardless of how many filer entities it covers, so a folder count understates the number of distinct registrants whose bond protection is documented in the dataset.

Who Files or Publishes This Dataset, and When

Who files

Each record in the Form 40-17G Files dataset is a fidelity bond filing submitted to EDGAR by a registered management investment company under the Investment Company Act of 1940. The filer is the registrant fund itself; the document being filed is the executed fidelity bond — a commercial insurance instrument purchased from a qualified fidelity surety — together with the board resolutions and secretary's certification evidencing approval by the fund's disinterested directors. Original submissions use form type 40-17G; 40-17G/A is used to amend previously filed bond materials.

Filing population

The reporting population is limited to registered management investment companies. In practice, this includes:

• Open-end management investment companies (mutual funds), including each series trust filed under a single registrant.
• Closed-end management investment companies, including listed closed-end funds and interval funds.
• Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) organized as open-end (most common) or closed-end management companies.
• Business development companies (BDCs), which are treated as closed-end management investment companies for purposes of Section 17(g) and Rule 17g-1.

The EDGAR filer is the registrant entity (trust, corporation, or series company), not an individual fund series, although the bond itself frequently identifies multiple series and affiliated registrants as joint insureds. Investment advisers, principal underwriters, transfer agents, and administrators are not filers; they may appear as additional named insureds on the bond, but the filing obligation rests on the registered investment company.

Excluded from the population: unit investment trusts, face-amount certificate companies, private funds (Section 3(c)(1) and 3(c)(7) vehicles), and non-U.S. collective investment vehicles. Rule 17g-1 applies only to registered management investment companies.

Triggering event

The filing is triggered by the execution of a fidelity bond under Rule 17g-1 of the Investment Company Act of 1940. Rule 17g-1(g) requires the registered management investment company to file a copy of the executed bond (or any amendment to it) with the Commission within ten days after receipt. That ten-day window is the operative deadline for each original 40-17G submission.

Rule 17g-1 also requires the bond to be reviewed and approved at least annually by a majority of the directors who are not "interested persons" within the meaning of Section 2(a)(19). Combined with the typical one-year fidelity bond policy term, this produces a recurring annual filing pattern: the bond is renewed, the disinterested directors approve the renewed bond, and a new Form 40-17G is filed within ten days of receiving the executed bond.

Filing contents

A typical Form 40-17G filing includes:

• the executed fidelity bond covering larceny and embezzlement by officers and employees with access to the company's securities or funds,
• board resolutions of the disinterested directors approving the amount, type, form, and coverage of the bond (and, for joint bonds, the premium allocation),
• a secretary's certification of those resolutions,
• a statement of the period for which premiums have been paid, and
• registrant identification (CIK, company name, series identifiers where relevant).

Regulatory framework

• Section 17(g) of the Investment Company Act of 1940 authorizes the Commission to require fidelity bonding of officers and employees of registered management investment companies who may have access to the company's securities or funds.
• Rule 17g-1 sets the substantive requirements: minimum bond amounts on a sliding scale based on gross assets, qualified-surety requirements, the annual disinterested-director approval, joint-insured conditions, and recordkeeping.
• Rule 17g-1(g) is the specific paragraph imposing the filing obligation: file the executed bond and related materials on Form 40-17G within ten days of receipt, and file any amendment to the bond on the same ten-day clock.

The bond indemnifies the fund against losses caused by larceny and embezzlement by covered officers and employees — it is a custody-integrity safeguard, not a general liability or errors-and-omissions policy.

Cadence

Form 40-17G is event-driven on its face but annual in practice. Two requirements drive the rhythm: market-standard one-year bond terms and the annual disinterested-director approval mandated by Rule 17g-1. Each renewal cycle generates a fresh execution and a fresh ten-day filing trigger.

Mid-period filings arise from increases or decreases in the bond amount (often driven by asset changes that move the fund into a different minimum-bond tier), changes in surety, addition or removal of named insureds in a joint-insured arrangement, complex restructurings, or formal endorsements amending bond terms. Modifications to a bond already on file are typically submitted as 40-17G/A; a wholly new policy for a new period is filed as a fresh 40-17G.

Joint-insured arrangements

Rule 17g-1 permits — and the industry overwhelmingly uses — joint-insured fidelity bonds covering multiple registrants in a fund complex along with affiliated service providers as additional named insureds. Joint arrangements require the disinterested directors of each participating fund to approve that fund's premium allocation and require a written agreement among the parties addressing recoveries.

Operationally, a single executed joint bond can produce multiple Form 40-17G filings — one from each participating registrant — all referencing the same instrument. Standalone funds file single-insured bonds. Both patterns appear throughout the dataset.

Dataset reach

The dataset includes all Form 40-17G and 40-17G/A filings submitted to EDGAR from January 2002 to the present. The underlying bonding obligation predates EDGAR: Section 17(g) was enacted in the original 1940 Act and Rule 17g-1 was adopted shortly thereafter, so fidelity bond filings were made on paper for decades before EDGAR began accepting Form 40-17G as a structured electronic submission in the early 2000s. Pre-2002 bond filings exist only in the Commission's paper records and are not part of this dataset.

How This Dataset Differs From Similar Datasets or Filings

Form 40-17G sits within a small cluster of Investment Company Act filings covering custody, internal controls, and operational risk for registered management investment companies. The closest comparison points are the other Rule 17-series operational filings (40-17F1, 40-17F2), the periodic reports that summarize bond information (N-CEN and its predecessor N-SAR), and the disclosure forms most often confused with bond evidence (N-CSR and the N-1A/N-2 registration statements).

Form 40-17F1 — Custody by exchange-member custodians

A Rule 17f-1 filing documenting custody arrangements when fund securities are held by a member of a national securities exchange, including the independent accountant's certificate covering the examination of those securities. Same form-number family, same asset-protection theme, but fundamentally different content: 40-17F1 evidences how securities are physically safeguarded; 40-17G evidences insurance coverage against insider theft of those assets. Not substitutes — funds typically file both.

Form 40-17F2 — Self-custody attestations

The Rule 17f-2 counterpart to Form 40-17F1 for funds that self-custody, again with an independent accountant's certificate and inventory of holdings examined. Overlap with 40-17G is limited to the broader Section 17 asset-safeguarding regime. Form 40-17F2 produces custody attestations and inventory data; 40-17G produces the executed bond contract and the board paperwork authorizing it.

Form N-CEN — Annual census report

The most important comparator. Form N-CEN reports structured fidelity bond metadata once a year: insurance carrier, aggregate bond amount, coverage period, premium paid, and whether claims were filed. It is the periodic, machine-readable counterpart to 40-17G's event-driven document filing. Critical differences:

• N-CEN gives tabular metadata; 40-17G gives the executed bond document, riders, named insureds, deductibles, and any joint-insured allocation schedule.
• N-CEN is annual and fund-complex-wide; 40-17G is filed within ten days of bond execution.
• N-CEN never contains the board resolutions setting the bond amount under joint-bond allocation rules or the secretary's certification — those exist only in 40-17G.

For a coverage-amount-and-carrier roll-up, use N-CEN. For contract terms, governance trail, or evidence of the bond itself, only 40-17G has the source material.

Form N-SAR — Predecessor to N-CEN

The semi-annual census report N-CEN replaced in June 2018, carrying similar bond particulars in its operational schedules. The 40-17G dataset (2002–present) spans both the N-SAR and N-CEN eras, so an executed bond from any year can be cross-referenced against whichever periodic regime was in force. Same distinction applies: Form N-SAR provides structured summaries; 40-17G provides the contemporaneous bond document.

Form N-CSR — Certified shareholder reports

Often grouped with 40-17G because both involve officer attestations, but the substance is unrelated. Form N-CSR delivers semi-annual financial statements, schedules of investments, and Sarbanes-Oxley certifications by the principal executive and financial officers, written for shareholders. It does not include the executed fidelity bond, the bond-approval resolutions, or the secretary's certification of those resolutions. (N-CSR reference.)

Form N-1A and Form N-2 — Registration statements

Open-end (Form N-1A) and closed-end (Form N-2) registration statements may describe insurance and risk-management practices in narrative form within the SAI or risk-factor sections. These are prospectus-grade investor disclosures — they may mention that a fidelity bond is maintained but never reproduce the bond, its amount, its carrier, or the board approval behind it. 40-17G is the only EDGAR source that evidences those terms directly. (N-1A and N-2 form references.)

Key differences at a glance

• Document vs. metadata: 40-17G is the executed insurance contract plus governance package; N-CEN/N-SAR are structured bond summaries.
• Event-driven vs. periodic: 40-17G is filed within ten days of bond execution; N-CEN is annual; N-SAR was semi-annual.
• Asset insurance vs. asset custody: 40-17G covers insurance against insider larceny and embezzlement; 40-17F1/40-17F2 cover physical custody arrangements and accountant verification of holdings.
• Compliance evidence vs. investor disclosure: 40-17G is filed for SEC compliance review under Rule 17g-1; N-CSR and N-1A/N-2 are written primarily for shareholders.

What makes 40-17G distinct

40-17G is the only EDGAR dataset that systematically captures the executed fidelity bond document together with its supporting governance package — the board resolutions approving the bond amount and form (including allocations under joint-insured arrangements), the secretary's certification of those resolutions, and registrant identification keyed to CIK, fund name, and premium-paid period. N-CEN and N-SAR carry bond metadata; N-CSR and the registration statements may reference insurance in narrative terms; none reproduce the contract or the board record.

The complementary relationship is straightforward: N-CEN (and historically N-SAR) is the entry point for cross-sectional analysis of bond amounts and carriers; 40-17G is the authoritative source for bond terms, named insureds, joint-bond allocation methodology, deductibles, and the governance trail behind a fund complex's insurance program. A complete view of fidelity bonding for any fund complex generally requires both.

Who Uses This Dataset

The Form 40-17G Files dataset serves a compact, technical user base organized around one regulatory artifact: the executed investment-company fidelity bond, the board resolutions approving it, and the secretary's certification. Each professional user below focuses on a different artifact in the submission.

Financial-institution bond underwriters and brokers

Underwriters and specialty brokers placing investment-company fidelity bonds use the dataset as a structured reference of executed policies. They mine face amounts, deductibles, riders, named insureds, joint-insured structures, and premium periods to price renewals, benchmark policy wording, estimate carrier market share, and pipeline complexes whose coverage is approaching expiration.

Fund chief compliance officers and chief legal officers

CCOs and CLOs at open-end, closed-end, and ETF complexes use the dataset to confirm their bond satisfies Rule 17g-1(d) minimums and to benchmark limits against peers of similar gross asset value. Key fields: secretary's certification, independent-director approval resolutions, premium-paid-through date, and the executed bond's coverage scope. Output feeds compliance calendars, the ten-day post-execution filing workflow, and Rule 38a-1 annual reviews.

1940 Act counsel

Mutual fund and registered investment company practice groups use the dataset when advising on bond adequacy, joint-insured allocation among affiliated funds, and amendments triggered by fund launches, mergers, or board reconstitutions. They study bond exhibits, Rule 17g-1(f) joint-insured agreements, and 40-17G/A amendment patterns to draft allocation provisions, board memos, and responses to SEC examination requests.

Risk consultants advising fund boards

Independent consultants engaged to assess coverage adequacy aggregate face amounts, deductibles, and bond forms across complexes matched on gross assets, fund count, and asset-class mix. The bond declarations page, schedule of insureds, and approval resolutions feed an annual coverage-adequacy report delivered to the audit committee.

SEC examination and rulemaking staff

Staff in the Division of Investment Management and the examination function use historical filings to verify the ten-day filing window, confirm bond limits meet the Rule 17g-1 schedule for the registrant's asset size, and flag outliers. The data supports examination scoping, sweep reviews, and rule-effectiveness studies.

Internal audit at fund advisers, transfer agents, and custodians

Internal audit uses 40-17G filings as evidence the required bond is in force, board-approved, and adequate. They reconcile named insureds against the current list of registered funds in the complex, verify that newly launched funds were added by amendment, and tie premium-paid-through dates to accounting records. Output supports audit workpapers, SOC 1 control narratives, and audit-committee representations.

Specialty insurance market analysts

Analysts at consulting and insurance research firms track how bond limits, deductibles, joint-insured structures, and rider scope (computer crime, social engineering) evolve across the registered fund universe. They use the panel to estimate carrier market share and produce market-sizing reports for the financial-institution bond segment.

Independent fund trustees

Trustees, usually working through counsel or a board consultant, use the dataset to inform the annual bond approval Rule 17g-1 requires. They focus on peer face amounts at comparable complexes, joint-insured allocation terms, and accepted deductible levels to support board-book materials and minutes documenting the comparative basis for their decision.

Academic researchers in fund governance and operational risk

Researchers use the 2002-to-present panel to link bond coverage to fund characteristics, board composition, adviser identity, and subsequent operational loss events. Extracted face amounts, premium periods, deductibles, and bonding-insurer identifiers support studies of carrier concentration, coverage scaling with AUM, and whether bond limits predict fraud incidence.

Fund administration providers

Third-party administrators that file on behalf of fund clients use historical accessions as a template library and QC reference for exhibit conventions, secretary's certification language, and joint-insured agreement structure when assembling new submissions or onboarding clients whose prior bonds must be transitioned.

Specific Use Cases

The use cases below tie directly to the artifacts inside a 40-17G submission: the executed bond instrument, the certified board resolutions, the joint-insured sharing agreement, the premium-paid confirmation, and the entities[] roster in metadata.json.

Benchmarking peer fidelity bond limits and deductibles

Pull the executed bond exhibit (description: "FIDELITY BOND", typically EX-99.(I) or EX-99.1) from filings of complexes matched on gross assets and fund count, then OCR or parse the declarations page for face amount, deductible, and rider scope (computer crime, social engineering). The output supports CCO peer benchmarking memos and the comparative table that accompanies the annual board approval book under Rule 17g-1.

Reconstructing joint-insured fund-family rosters

Use the entities[] array on every joint-insured 40-17G accession to produce an authoritative CIK-level membership list of each fund family's shared bond, then diff successive accessions (including 40-17G/A amendments) to detect when a newly launched fund was added or a merged fund was dropped. The resulting time series feeds internal-audit reconciliation against the active list of registered funds in the complex and powers underwriter pipeline lists of complexes whose insured group is changing.

Monitoring bond renewals and expiration pipelines

Parse the PREMIUMS PAID CONFIRMATION exhibit (EX-99.(IV) or equivalent) together with filedAt to compute a premium-paid-through date for each registrant. Filter for dates falling within the next 60 to 120 days to build a renewal-pipeline list for brokers and underwriters, or to flag complexes whose next 40-17G filing is overdue for compliance and examination scoping.

Extracting joint-bond allocation methodology for legal drafting

Retrieve the FIDELITY BOND SHARING AGREEMENT exhibit (EX-99.(V)) and the CERTIFIED RESOLUTIONS exhibit (EX-99.(II)) across a sample of large fund complexes to compare how recoveries are allocated among named insureds under Rule 17g-1(f). 1940 Act counsel use the extracted allocation language as drafting precedent for new joint-bond agreements and board memos supporting the disinterested-director approval.

Tracking amendment patterns to detect coverage changes

Group accessions by registrant CIK and form type to surface every 40-17G/A and the original 40-17G it amends. Inspect the changed exhibit identified by the description field (re-executed bond, corrected single-insured statement, revised insured roster) to classify amendments as carrier change, limit change, roster change, or clerical correction. The classification supports SEC examination sweep reviews and academic studies linking amendments to operational loss events.

Estimating carrier market share in the investment-company bond segment

OCR the bond instrument's declarations page across all single-issuer and joint-insured filings in a given year to extract the named carrier and bond face amount, then aggregate by carrier and complex. The output produces market-share and coverage-distribution tables for specialty insurance research and informs broker placement strategy, complementing N-CEN's structured carrier metadata where it is missing or inconsistent.

Building a template library for fund administration onboarding

Index modern HTML filings (roughly 2018 onward) by description to assemble a curated library of exemplar transmittal letters, secretary's certifications, sharing agreements, and resolution language. Third-party administrators use the library as a QC reference when assembling new bond submissions for onboarding clients and when transitioning a complex's bond from a prior administrator.

Dataset Access

Dataset Index JSON API: https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-4017g-files.json

The dataset index returns metadata describing the Form 40-17G Files dataset, including the name, description, last updated timestamp, earliest sample date, total record count, total size, form types covered (40-17G and 40-17G/A), the container format (ZIP), and the content file types (TXT, JSON, HTML, PDF). It also provides the download URL for the full dataset archive and a list of individual container files, each with its own size, record count, updated timestamp, and download URL. Use this endpoint to monitor which containers were refreshed in the most recent update run and to decide which containers to download incrementally on a daily basis. This endpoint does not require an API key.

Example response:

          1
          {
        

          2
            "datasetId": "1f13365b-9ae0-68f6-9895-790586e276d4",
        

          3
            "datasetDownloadUrl": "https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-4017g-files.zip",
        

          4
            "name": "Form 40-17G Files Dataset",
        

          5
            "updatedAt": "2026-04-28T02:57:02.446Z",
        

          6
            "earliestSampleDate": "2002-01-01",
        

          7
            "totalRecords": 34182,
        

          8
            "totalSize": 8894454598,
        

          9
            "formTypes": ["40-17G", "40-17G/A"],
        

          10
            "containerFormat": "ZIP",
        

          11
            "fileTypes": ["TXT", "JSON", "HTML", "PDF"],
        

          12
            "containers": [
        

          13
              {
        

          14
                "downloadUrl": "https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-4017g-files/2026/2026-04.zip",
        

          15
                "key": "2026/2026-04.zip",
        

          16
                "size": 13818783,
        

          17
                "records": 154,
        

          18
                "updatedAt": "2026-04-28T02:57:02.446Z"
        

          19
              }
        

          20
            ]
        

          21
          }
        

Download Entire Dataset: https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-4017g-files.zip?token=YOUR_API_KEY

Downloads the complete Form 40-17G Files dataset as a single ZIP archive covering filings from 2002 onward. This endpoint requires an API key.

Download Single Container: https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-4017g-files/2026/2026-04.zip?token=YOUR_API_KEY

Downloads one monthly container ZIP instead of the full archive, which is useful for incremental updates or when only a specific time period is needed. This endpoint requires an API key.

Frequently Asked Questions

What forms does this dataset cover?

The dataset covers Form 40-17G (the original fidelity bond filing) and Form 40-17G/A (amendments to a previously filed fidelity bond). Both are filed under Rule 17g-1(g) of the Investment Company Act of 1940 and are packaged identically in the dataset, distinguished only by the formType value and the document-type label on the primary document.

What does one record in this dataset represent?

One record is one complete EDGAR submission of a fidelity bond filing, identified by its 18-digit accession number. Each record materializes as one accession-number folder containing a metadata.json manifest plus the primary document and any exhibits the filer attached, in their native HTML or PDF form.

Who is required to file Form 40-17G?

Registered management investment companies — open-end mutual funds, closed-end funds, ETFs organized as management companies, and business development companies — must file Form 40-17G within ten days of receiving an executed fidelity bond. Unit investment trusts, face-amount certificate companies, private funds (Section 3(c)(1) and 3(c)(7) vehicles), and non-U.S. collective investment vehicles are excluded from the Rule 17g-1 population.

How often is Form 40-17G filed?

The form is event-driven (within ten days of executing a bond) but annual in practice, because fidelity bonds are typically written for one-year terms and Rule 17g-1 requires the disinterested directors to approve the bond at least annually. Mid-cycle filings arise from changes in bond amount, surety, or named-insured roster, and are usually submitted as 40-17G/A amendments.

What time period does the dataset cover?

The dataset includes all Form 40-17G and 40-17G/A filings submitted to EDGAR from January 2002 to the present. Pre-2002 fidelity bond filings exist only in the SEC's paper records and are not included.

What file format is the dataset distributed in?

Records are distributed in monthly ZIP containers. Inside each accession folder, documents are stored as native HTML (with EDGAR's SGML <DOCUMENT> envelope preserved) and PDF, accompanied by a metadata.json manifest. GRAPHIC-tagged image files and the SGML <accession>.txt complete-submission text file are intentionally excluded from on-disk extraction but remain enumerated in the metadata with their original EDGAR URLs.

How does this dataset differ from N-CEN fidelity bond reporting?

N-CEN reports tabular fidelity bond metadata once a year — carrier, aggregate bond amount, coverage period, premium paid, and whether claims were filed. The Form 40-17G Files dataset captures the underlying source artifacts: the executed bond contract, the disinterested-director resolutions approving it, the secretary's certification, the single-insured statement, the premiums-paid confirmation, and the joint-insured sharing agreement. N-CEN is the entry point for cross-sectional roll-ups; 40-17G is the only EDGAR source for the bond document and the governance trail behind it.