What to Watch at ICI’s 2026 Investment Management Conference
Asset management firms are navigating change on several fronts at once, and so are the legal and compliance professionals helping guide them through it. New technologies are reshaping how firms operate and organize their workforces. Evolving product structures are creating fresh questions about governance, disclosure, and investor protection. A shifting regulatory environment is offering new opportunities—and new responsibilities. And through all of it, firms should be thinking carefully about leadership, culture, and talent in new ways.
These issues will converge at ICI’s 2026 Investment Management Conference, convening March 22–25 in Palm Desert, California. This year’s program arrives at an unusually consequential moment—one shaped not just by what’s happening in Washington but by broader shifts in how the industry works, what it offers investors, and how firms themselves are evolving.
A Consequential Year in Washington
The past twelve months have produced a string of tangible policy developments. The SEC has granted exemptive relief for ETF share classes and opened new co-investment pathways for closed-end funds and business development companies. The president's executive order directing the SEC and DOL to facilitate access to alternative assets in defined-contribution retirement plans has set in motion what could be one of the most significant expansions of retirement investment options in years. Policymakers have also turned their attention to digital assets and tokenization. Several of these developments — including ETF share class relief and new co-investment pathways — reflect priorities ICI laid out in its Reimagining the 1940 Act white paper, unveiled at last year's IMC.
IMC will offer attendees the chance to assess what the SEC’s first year under Chairman Atkins’s leadership has meant in practice — and what may come next. Keynote remarks from Division of Investment Management Director Brian Daly and Commissioner Hester Peirce will anchor those conversations, alongside sessions that look beyond the SEC to the broader advocacy climate across Congress, the White House, and other agencies. Attendees will also hear updates on ICI's 1940 Act modernization agenda and the progress made since last year's conference.
Technology, Talent and Corporate Evolution
AI is no longer a future-state conversation for asset management. It is already changing how firms staff, organize, and oversee their operations, and how legal and compliance teams work. This year’s program explores that shift, with a focus on AI’s workforce implications, including the human capital and talent management questions that firms are confronting as roles evolve.
At the same time, the program gives sustained attention to the questions of governance, leadership, and organizational culture that underpin everything else. As firms grow more complex—managing across more product lines, distribution channels, and regulatory regimes—the demands on in-house counsel, chief compliance officers, and fund boards are expanding. How firms lead through that complexity, and how they build cultures that hold up under pressure, may matter as much as any single policy development.
ETFs continue to dominate growth and innovation in the industry. With share class relief granted and firms preparing for implementation, the conversation has moved from whether this innovation will happen to how—and what the legal, structural, and competitive implications will be as it unfolds.
A Broader Mandate
The breadth of this year's program reflects the expansive role of legal and compliance professionals in the industry. The people in the room at IMC are not just interpreting rules and managing risk. They are advising on product strategy, shaping how firms adopt new technology, helping boards navigate unfamiliar territory, and making judgments to ensure that the industry's current wave of innovation serves investors well.
Tuesday's keynote from Shark Tank investor and FUBU founder Daymond John brings an outside perspective to that challenge. His experience building a global brand from scratch, navigating shifts in markets and consumer behavior, and evaluating new ventures offers a different lens on the same questions the conference approaches from a legal and regulatory perspective: how to lead when the landscape is changing faster than the playbook.
IMC has been a fixture of the fund industry's calendar for decades, and this year's edition arrives at a moment when legal and compliance professionals are being asked to do more, across more dimensions, than ever before. It's a chance to take stock of a consequential year, prepare for what's ahead, and compare notes with the peers who are managing the same challenges.