Key Takeaways

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Paul Atkins says that he’s “fast-tracking” Trump’s proposal to make quarterly earnings optional, letting companies choose semiannual reporting instead.
Your 401(k) and retirement funds use quarterly reports for rebalancing and risk management—fewer updates could mean bigger market surprises and higher trading costs.
Researchers argue that when Europe ditched quarterly reporting a decade ago, that didn’t cure short-term thinking, but it did make analyst predictions less accurate.

President Donald Trump has renewed his push to let public companies report only twice a year instead of filing every quarter. The move was quickly backed by the president’s hand-picked SEC chair, who argued that this wouldn’t mean that investors are left with less of the information they need.

“Giving companies the option to report semiannually is not a retreat from transparency. Instead, it puts a renewed focus on market-driven disclosure practices that favor the interests of companies and their investors over prescriptive regulatory mandates,” Atkins wrote in a Financial Times opinion piece published Sunday. The move requires changes to SEC rules and would broadly align U.S. practice with the U.K. and European Union, where quarterly reporting has not been mandatory for years.

Supporters, including Trump and Atkins, say a six‑month cadence would cut costs and reduce “short‑termism”—the way companies and investors might focus too much on the next quarterly report and what it does to a stock price. Critics, however, warn that it would cut some of the transparency that underpins U.S. markets and delay critical information for investors.

Why This Matters To You

For retirement savers, the implications could be significant. Quarter-end earnings releases are baked into how many investments operate. Retirement plans, index funds, as well as bond and stock portfolios often trigger rebalancing or valuation adjustments every three months. It could also make it harder to see when companies are facing problems before they become a crisis.

What Would Actually Change—And What Wouldn’t

Today, most publicly traded U.S. corporations must file financial statements after each fiscal quarter, with deadlines that can be as tight as 40 days for larger filers. Trump’s push would allow companies to report twice a year instead, replacing the familiar 10‑Q cadence with biannual reports. Those changes would have to come from the SEC, which is why Atkins’ support is crucial. 

Here’s what wouldn’t change: firms would still be bound by current disclosure rules. Form 8‑K, for instance, must be filed within four business days of material events (mergers and acquisitions, CEO departures, etc.). Regulation Fair Disclosure (Reg FD), too, would continue to require companies to avoid any selective sharing of material news. In other words, even with fewer 10‑Qs, companies are still on the hook for making public major changes to their business.

Also, many companies may still update investors quarterly through voluntary press releases, trading updates, or voluntary conference calls—mirroring practice in the U.K. and EU, where quarterlies aren’t mandated but many companies still do so. 

Why Your Retirement Fund Cares

If you save in a 401(k), IRA, or target‑date fund, you’re relying on professional managers who price thousands of stocks, manage risks, and trade to keep portfolios on track. Fewer “official” update points can concentrate uncertainty: research shows volatility and volume spike around earnings announcements—the so‑called earnings announcement premium. With the number of mandated reports dropping in half, those bursts could get bigger, potentially widening bid‑ask spreads and raising trading costs that ultimately flow back to long-term investors. 

Between earnings dates, information asymmetry also tends to build—a dynamic that academic researchers have linked to wider spreads (the gap between what you bid for a stock and what gets accepted) and costlier trading. Halving the number of required reports could lengthen those “quiet” stretches, even if 8‑Ks handle truly material matters.

That’s why lower frequency can matter to passive and active funds alike: it may nudge execution costs higher and make rebalancing trickier, even if long‑term valuation work doesn’t necessarily change. However, Atkins argues the current system already allows flexibility, noting that “foreign companies listed on US exchanges are required to report semiannually, though some continue to report earnings results each quarter.”

In any case, the stakes are large. U.S. retirement assets stand at almost $46 trillion, with individual account‑based savings like 401(k)s and individual retirement accounts dominating the market. Any change in the flow of corporate information is, therefore, a change in the informational diet of a huge share of America’s household wealth.

What Happened When Europe Killed Quarterly Reports

Europe offers a natural experiment—a chance to see what actually happens when the rules change: The EU removed its quarterly‑report mandate in 2013, and the U.K. followed in 2014. Studies found no meaningful boost to corporate investment from the switch. Companies didn’t suddenly start thinking long-term. Instead, firms that stopped quarterly reporting often lost analyst coverage and saw their stock forecasts become less accurate—suggesting the market lost valuable information touchpoints. 

Here’s the kicker: many European issuers still provide quarterly updates or guidance voluntarily, even without a mandate. This suggests the markets might gravitate toward regular check-ins, whether required or not. Expect some U.S. companies to do the same if rules change.

Fast Fact

In his Financial Times piece, SEC Chair Atkins railed against “political fads or distorted objectives” at the Biden-era SEC, targeting its push for climate disclosures and other reporting that Republicans argued went beyond the SEC’s mandate. His message: the SEC should care only about what he believes directly affects your returns, not “social change.”

The Bottom Line

If the SEC embraces Trump’s semiannual reporting plan, expect fewer routine filings but not an information blackout—companies still must disclose big news immediately. Watch for an SEC proposal and comment period in the months ahead—and remember: broadly diversified, long‑term portfolios are built to handle changes in reporting cadence better than headline‑driven bets around earnings reports.