Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements
1. Summary of Significant Accounting Policies
The following is a summary of significant accounting policies consistently followed by the Stone Ridge Reinsurance Risk Premium Interval Fund (the “Fund”) in the preparation of its consolidated financial statements. The consolidated financial statements have been prepared in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. The Fund is an investment company and applies specific accounting and financial reporting requirements under Financial Accounting Standards Board Accounting Standards Topic 946, Financial Services – Investment Companies.
2. Investment Valuation and Fair Value Measurement
The Board of Trustees (the “Board”) has approved procedures pursuant to which the Fund values its investments (the “Valuation Procedures”). The Board has established an Adviser Valuation Committee made up of employees of Stone Ridge Asset Management LLC (the “Adviser”) to which the Board has delegated responsibility for overseeing the implementation of the Valuation Procedures, including fair value determinations made on behalf of the Board.
Listed below is a summary of certain of the methods generally used currently to value investments of the Fund under the Valuation Procedures:
With respect to pricing of insurance-linked securities (including participation notes and preference shares) for which at least one designated independent broker provides a price, that price (or, if multiple designated independent brokers provide a price, the average of such prices) will be used to value the security. The Fund typically utilizes an independent data delivery vendor to obtain the prices, average them and communicate the resulting value to the Administrator. If no designated independent broker provides a price for the security in question, the Adviser Valuation Committee will generally utilize prices provided by one or more other brokers that the Adviser has approved to value the security. For certain securities, an administrator or third-party manager may regularly provide net asset values that may be used to determine the price at which an investor can subscribe for or redeem an investment in that security, subject to any relevant restrictions on the timing of such subscriptions or redemptions. The Adviser Valuation Committee will generally rely upon such valuations, with any necessary adjustment to reflect relevant corporate actions (e.g., dividends paid but not yet reflected in the reported net asset value).
Non-prime money market funds and cash sweep programs are generally valued at amortized cost, which approximates fair value.
Other debt securities, including corporate and government debt securities (of U.S. or foreign issuers) and municipal debt securities, loans, mortgage-backed securities, collateralized mortgage obligations and other asset-backed securities (except event-linked bonds) are valued by an independent pricing service at an evaluated (or estimated) mean between the closing bid and asked prices.
For investments in investment companies that are registered under the 1940 Act, the value of the shares of such funds is calculated based upon the net asset value (“NAV”) per share of such funds. The prospectuses for such funds explain the circumstances under which they will use fair value pricing and its effects.
Exchange-traded derivatives, such as options and futures contracts, are valued at the settlement price on the exchange or mean of the bid and asked prices.
Non-exchange traded derivatives, including over-the-counter options, are generally valued on the basis of valuations provided by a pricing service or using quotes provided by a broker/dealer (typically the counterparty).
Generally, the Fund must value its assets using market quotations when they are readily available. If, with respect to any portfolio instrument, market quotations are not readily available or available market quotations are deemed to be unreliable by the Adviser Valuation Committee, then such instruments will be valued as determined in good faith by the Adviser Valuation Committee. In these circumstances, the Fund determines fair value in a manner that seeks to reflect the market value of the security on the valuation date based on consideration by the Adviser Valuation Committee of any information or factors it deems appropriate.
Fair value pricing may require subjective determinations about the value of a portfolio instrument. Fair values may differ from quoted or published prices, or from prices that are used by others, for the same investments. Also, the use of fair value pricing may not always result
11