At an industry meeting a few years ago, a senior member of the investment management division of the SEC acknowledged being unaware of the standard for fiduciary duty waivers in private investment deals. That seemed to reflect what some saw as a lack of attention by the SEC to certain issues of concern for institutional investors (e.g., universities and pension plans). The situation seems to be changing, however, culminating in a keynote speech (Speech) in November 2021 by SEC Chair Gary Gensler to the Institutional Limited Partners Association (ILPA), during which he raised some of those investor concerns himself, including about fiduciary waivers. The Speech was the first time an SEC Chair has spoken at ILPA, the leading organization focusing on investors in PE and related closed-end funds, and the five topics he selected indicated a close familiarity with the overall challenges allocators face in the $17‑trillion private funds industry. In a guest article, Hirschler Fleischer partner Edward H. Klees offers his thoughts on where the SEC will choose to focus in each of the five areas identified in the Speech. For coverage of the Speech, see “Gensler Outlines Private Fund Regulatory Agenda and Aggressive Areas of SEC Focus” (Dec. 7, 2021).