T Rowe Price (TROW) Risk Analysis

Our regulatory environment is frequently altered by new laws and regulations and by revisions to, and evolving interpretations of, existing regulations. New laws and regulations present areas of uncertainty susceptible to alternative interpretations; regulators and prospective litigants may not agree with reasoned interpretations we adopt. Certain new regulatory proposals that may impact or relate to our business, include cybersecurity disclosures, sustainability, privacy and data protection, financial products, fiduciary and fund-related reforms, digital assets, tax compliance, and other investment management disclosure and compliance requirements. Future changes could require us to modify or curtail our investment offerings and business operations which may impact our expenses and profitability. Additionally, some laws and regulations may not directly apply to our business but may impact the capital markets, service providers, or have other indirect effects on our ability to provide services to our clients. Potential impacts of current or proposed legal or regulatory requirements include, without limitation, the following: - There has been increasing focus on the framework of the U.S. retirement system at the federal and state levels. We could experience adverse business impacts if legislative and regulatory changes limit retirement plans to certain products and services, or favor certain investment vehicles that we do not offer, materially limit retirement savings opportunities or foster substantial outflows from retirement savings plans for non-retirement purposes. - There has been substantial regulatory and legislative activity at federal and state levels regarding standards of care for financial services firms, related to both retirement and taxable accounts. Actions taken by applicable regulatory or legislative bodies may impact our business activities and increase our costs. - The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) regulations may limit the ability of certain investment products to use futures, swaps, and other derivatives. We have registered certain subsidiaries with the CFTC, subjecting us to additional regulatory requirements and costs, but also providing us with additional flexibility to utilize such products. Nonetheless, there are still certain limitations on our investment products due to CFTC rules. - There has been increased global regulatory focus on the manner in which intermediaries are paid for distribution of mutual funds or other collective investments funds. Changes to long-standing market practices related to fees or enhanced disclosure requirements may negatively impact sales of mutual funds or other collective investments funds by intermediaries, especially if such requirements are not applied to other investment products. - We remain subject to various state, federal and international laws and regulations (and associated judicial decisions) related to privacy, data collection and use, including the EU's General Data Protection Regulation ("GDPR") and laws enacted by a growing number of U.S. states; cybersecurity; current and emerging technology, including AI and automated decision-making technologies; storage, localization, retention and destruction of data; disclosure, transfer, availability, security and integrity of data; notification of regulators and/or impacted parties regarding adverse data-related events, including the SEC's cybersecurity disclosure rules; amended Regulation S-P; and other similar matters that can concern the data of our clients and/or personnel. Requirements in these areas continue to expand and evolve throughout the globe, most commonly in ways that increase the complexity and costs of compliance. Future changes to laws and regulations in these areas could impose significant limitations on our operations, require changes to our business, or restrict our collection, use or storage of data or related technologies, which may increase our compliance expenses and make our business more costly or less efficient to conduct. - Regulators have imposed certain clearing, margin, trade reporting, electronic trading and recordkeeping requirements on market participants aimed at market stabilization and risk reduction, such as the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and related regulations in the U.S. and the European Market Infrastructure Regulation in the EU. These requirements have introduced operational complexity and additional costs to derivatives products. - New laws or regulations involving sustainability integration and disclosure may materially impact the asset management industry, including the EU's Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation, the EU's Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, and similar initiatives proposed or adopted by various U.S. states. Conversely, some U.S. states and foreign governments have adopted or proposed legislation or otherwise have taken official positions restricting or prohibiting government entities from doing certain business with entities they believe are discriminating against particular industries or considering sustainability factors in their investment processes and proxy voting. As jurisdictions globally continue to develop legal frameworks on sustainability and sustainability regulations, our industry and business may face increasingly fragmented regulatory frameworks, which may result in complex and potentially conflicting compliance obligations and legal and regulatory uncertainty. - Recently, several significant administrative law cases were decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, most notably Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, which overruled Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. In Loper Bright, the Supreme Court held that the U.S. Administrative Procedure Act required courts to exercise their independent judgment when deciding whether an agency had acted within its statutory authority, and that courts may not defer to an agency interpretation solely because a statute is ambiguous, overruling the long-held Chevron decision that had required that courts defer to reasonable agency interpretations of statutes and agency action. These decisions may result in additional legal challenges to regulations and guidance issued by federal regulatory agencies that we or the companies our products invest in have relied on and intend to rely on in the future. Any such challenges, if successful, could have a material impact on our business because we may make decisions based on legal guidance that may be overruled. In addition to potential changes to regulations and agency guidance as a result of legal challenges, these decisions may result in increased regulatory uncertainty and delays in and other impacts to the agency rulemaking process, any of which could adversely impact our business and operations. We cannot predict the nature of future changes to the legal and regulatory requirements applicable to our business, nor the extent of the impacts that will result from current or future proposals. However, any such changes are likely to increase the costs of compliance and the complexity of our operations, as well as result in changes to our product or service offerings. The changing regulatory landscape may also impact a number of service providers that provide services to us and, to the extent such service providers alter their operations or increase their fees, it may impact our expenses or those of the products we offer.

Our businesses involve the risk that clients or others may sue us, claiming that we or third parties for whom they say we are responsible have failed to perform under a contract or otherwise failed to carry out a duty perceived to be owed to them. Our trust and investment management businesses are particularly subject to this risk. Claims made or actions brought against us, whether founded or unfounded, may result in lawsuits, injunctions, settlements, damages, fines, or penalties, which could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition or results of operations or require changes to our business. Even if we defend ourselves successfully, the cost of litigation is often substantial, and public reports regarding claims made against us may cause damage to our reputation among existing and prospective clients or negatively impact the confidence of counterparties, rating agencies and stockholders, consequently affecting our earnings negatively.

We are subject to income taxes as well as non-income-based taxes and complex tax regimes in both the United States and various foreign jurisdictions in which we operate. We cannot predict future changes in the tax regulations to which we are subject, and any such changes could have a material impact on our tax liability or result in increased costs of our tax compliance efforts. Additionally, changes in the status of tax deferred investment options, including retirement plans, tax-free municipal bonds, the capital gains and corporate dividend tax rates, and other individual and corporate tax rates could cause investors to view certain investment products less favorably and reduce investor demand for products and services we offer, which could have an adverse effect on our assets under management and revenues.

We are subject to competition in all aspects of our business from other financial institutions. Some of these financial institutions have greater resources than we do and may offer a broader range of financial products across more markets. Some competitors operate in a different regulatory environment than we do which may give them certain competitive advantages in the investment products and portfolio structures that they offer. We compete with other providers of investment advisory services primarily based on the availability and objectives of the investment products offered, investment performance, fees and related expenses, and the scope and quality of investment advice, other client services and technology offerings. Some institutions have proprietary products, distribution channels or technology offerings that make it more difficult for us to compete with them. In addition, in recent years, there has been continued consolidation in the asset management industry, which continues to alter our competitive landscape, has led to fee compression, and requires us to modify or adapt our product offerings to attract and retain customers. Substantially all of our investment products are available without sales or redemption fees, which means that investors may be more willing to transfer assets to competing products. If our clients reduce their investments with us, and we are not able to attract new clients, our AUM, revenue and earnings could decline. The market environment in recent years has led investors to increasingly favor lower fee passive investment products. As a result, investment advisors that emphasize passive products have gained and may continue to gain market share from active managers like us. While we believe there will always be demand for strong performing active management, we cannot predict how much market share these competitors will gain. Furthermore, many aspects of the asset management industry are seeing increased regulatory activity and scrutiny, in particular related to transparency and unbundling of fees, inducements, conflicts of interest, risk management, cybersecurity, technology, privacy and data protection, sustainability, diversity, equity and inclusion, and compensation. We may respond to these regulatory matters or may be impacted by these actions in a manner different from our competitors, which may impact our AUM or result in the loss of clients and their assets. As part of our continued efforts to attract and retain clients, we develop and launch new products and services, which may require expenditure of resources and may expose us to new regulatory or compliance requirements as well as increased risk of operational or client service errors. In the event that we decide to reduce the fees we charge for investment advisory services in response to competitive pressures, which we have done selectively in the past, revenues and operating margins could be adversely impacted. Fee reductions may vary depending on strategy and product offerings, which could result in investment rebalancing or reallocation adversely impacting revenues and operating margins.

Our alternatives products include investments in private credit, real estate, infrastructure and private companies, which may expose our investment products, clients and us to new or increased risks and liabilities. These may include: - risks related to the potential illiquidity, valuation, concentration and disposition of such investments;- risks related to emerging and less established companies that have, among other things, short operating histories, not yet achieved or sustained profitability, new technologies and products, nascent control functions, quickly evolving markets and limited financial resources;- credit risks, including interest-rate movements and an issuer's ability to make principal and interest payments on the debt it issues;- risks related to investment in "distressed" securities, including abrupt and erratic market movements and above-average price volatility;- risks relating to the use of leverage, including as a result of changes in interest rates or an inability to timely obtain and effectively deploy leverage;- failures on the part of third-party managers, service providers or sub-contractors appointed in connection with investments or projects to adequately perform their contractual duties or operate in accordance with applicable laws;- exposure to stringent and complex foreign, federal, state and local laws, ordinances and regulations;- risks related to the availability, cost, coverage and other limitations on insurance; and - the financial resources of tenants or loan counterparties; and contingent liabilities on disposition of investments. These (and similar) risks may expose our investment products, clients and us, to the extent of our investment in such investment products, to expenses and liabilities, including costs associated with delays or remediation and increased legal or regulatory costs, all of which could impact the returns earned by our investment products and clients. These risks could also result in direct liability for us by exposing us to losses, regulatory sanctions or litigation, including claims for compensatory or punitive damages. The occurrence of any such events may expose us to reputational harm, or cause our AUM, revenues and net income to decline.

We or our third-party vendors, clients or counterparties have developed, and may continue to develop or incorporate AI technology in certain business processes, services or products. The development and use of AI present a number of risks and challenges to our business. The legal and regulatory environment relating to AI is uncertain and rapidly evolving, in the U.S., and internationally, and includes regulation targeted specifically at AI technology, as well as provisions in intellectual property, privacy, consumer protection, employment and other laws applicable to the use of AI. For example, any failure to properly safeguard and maintain personal data in connection with our use of AI creates potential risk of violating applicable privacy laws and regulations in jurisdictions we operate in, and could subject us to disclosure obligations, regulatory investigations, actions or fines, and litigation. These evolving laws and regulations could require changes in our implementation of AI technology, increase our compliance costs and the risk of non-compliance, and restrict or impede our ability to develop, adopt and deploy AI technologies efficiently and effectively. AI models, particularly generative AI models, may produce output or take action that is incorrect or outdated, that result in the release of personal, confidential or proprietary information, that reflect biases included in the data on which they are trained or introduced during the training or fine tuning process, that infringe on the intellectual property rights of others, or that is otherwise harmful. In addition, the complexity of many AI models makes it challenging to understand why they are generating particular outputs. This limited transparency increases the challenges associated with assessing the proper operation of AI technology, appreciating the risks and monitoring the capabilities of the AI technology developed by third parties, and, to that extent, are dependent in part on the manner in which those third parties develop and train their models, including for example, risks arising from the inclusion of any unauthorized material in the training data for their models, and the effectiveness of the steps these third parties have taken to limit the risks associated with the output of their models, matters over which we may have limited visibility. Further, the use of AI technologies requires ongoing operational controls and procedures and the development and deployment of appropriate protections and safeguards. AI technologies may also disrupt the competitive landscape for investment management and technology services, including in commercial and operational areas such as data aggregation and quantitative models. Any of these risks could expose us to liability or adverse legal or regulatory consequences and harm our reputation and the public perception of our business or the effectiveness of our security measures. Furthermore, we may face competition from investment managers who use AI in lieu of human managers, which may lead to lower cost solutions which could impact our business. In addition to our use of AI technologies, we are exposed to risks arising from the use of AI technologies by bad actors to commit fraud and misappropriate funds and to facilitate cyberattacks. Generative AI, if used to perpetrate fraud or launch cyberattacks, could result in losses, liquidity outflows, or other adverse effects at a particular financial institution or exchange. If our use of AI becomes controversial, we may experience brand or reputational harm, competitive harm, or legal liability.

Our business and the assets we manage on behalf of clients could be impacted by climate change-related risks. Climate change may present risk to our business through changes in the physical climate or from the process of transitioning to a lower-carbon economy. Climate-related physical risks arise from the direct impacts of a changing climate in the short-, medium- and long-term. Such risks may include an increase in the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events, changes in temperature, rising sea levels and increase of wildfires, which may damage infrastructure and facilities, increase energy costs, negatively impact workforces, as well as disrupt connectivity or supply chains. Within our investment products, changes in weather patterns around the world can impact companies in which we invest on behalf of our clients. Weather pattern changes may cause investment professionals to re-evaluate investments in affected companies. Valuations may be impacted resulting in declines in asset values and potential loss of revenue. Climate-related transition risks arise from exposure to the transition to a lower-carbon economy through policy, regulatory, technology and market changes. For instance, new regulations and changes in existing regulations may lead to increased compliance costs, enhanced reporting obligations, regulation of existing products and/or services, exposure to litigation, and aggressive or inconsistent levels of regulatory enforcement globally. Additionally, climate change may influence client preferences by increasing the demand for investment products oriented toward climate change mitigation. Conversely, a climate-related backlash could negatively impact demand for climate or transition related products. Climate change may also impact our reputation if we are perceived to fall short of our own corporate commitments or stakeholder expectations. Any of these risks may have a material adverse effect on our AUM, revenue and earnings.