Basis of Financial Statement Presentation (Policies)

3 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2021

Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]

Revenue Recognition

The accompanying condensed balance sheet as of September 30, 2021, which has been derived from audited financial statements, and the unaudited interim condensed financial statements as of and for the three months ended December 31, 2021, have been prepared pursuant to the rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and include the accounts of Hennessy Advisors, Inc. (the “Company,” “we,” “us,” or “our”). Certain information and footnote disclosures in these unaudited interim condensed financial statements, normally included in financial statements prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States, have been condensed or omitted pursuant to rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission for Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. In the opinion of management, the unaudited interim condensed financial statements reflect all adjustments necessary for a fair statement of the Company’s financial position at December 31, 2021, the Company’s operating results for the three months ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, and the Company’s cash flows for the three months ended December 31, 2021 and 2020. These unaudited interim condensed financial statements and notes should be read in conjunction with the Company’s audited financial statements and notes thereto for fiscal year 2021, which are included in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2021.

The preparation of financial statements requires management to make estimates and assumptions. Making estimates requires management to exercise significant judgment. Accordingly, the actual results could differ substantially from those estimates.

The Company’s operating activities consist primarily of providing investment advisory services to 16 open-end mutual funds branded as the Hennessy Funds. The Company serves as the investment advisor to all classes of the Hennessy Cornerstone Growth Fund, the Hennessy Focus Fund, the Hennessy Cornerstone Mid Cap 30 Fund, the Hennessy Cornerstone Large Growth Fund, the Hennessy Cornerstone Value Fund, the Hennessy Total Return Fund, the Hennessy Equity and Income Fund, the Hennessy Balanced Fund, the Hennessy Energy Transition Fund, the Hennessy Midstream Fund, the Hennessy Gas Utility Fund, the Hennessy Japan Fund, the Hennessy Japan Small Cap Fund, the Hennessy Large Cap Financial Fund, the Hennessy Small Cap Financial Fund, and the Hennessy Technology Fund. The Company also provides shareholder services to shareholders of the Hennessy Funds.

The Company’s operating revenues consist of contractual investment advisory and shareholder service fees paid to it by the Hennessy Funds. The Company earns investment advisory fees from each Hennessy Fund by, among other things:

• acting as portfolio manager for the fund or overseeing the sub-advisor acting as portfolio manager for the fund, which includes managing the composition of the fund’s portfolio (including the purchase, retention, and disposition of portfolio securities in accordance with the fund’s investment objectives, policies, and restrictions), seeking best execution for the fund’s portfolio, managing the use of soft dollars for the fund, and managing proxy voting for the fund;

• performing a daily reconciliation of portfolio positions and cash for the fund;

• monitoring the liquidity of the fund;

• monitoring the fund’s compliance with its investment objectives and restrictions and federal securities laws;

• maintaining a compliance program (including a code of ethics), conducting ongoing reviews of the compliance programs of the fund’s service providers (including any sub-advisor), including their codes of ethics, as appropriate, conducting onsite visits to the fund’s service providers (including any sub-advisor) as feasible, monitoring incidents of abusive trading practices, reviewing fund expense accruals, payments, and fixed expense ratios, evaluating insurance providers for fidelity bond, directors and officers and errors and omissions insurance, and cybersecurity insurance coverage, managing regulatory examination compliance and responses, conducting employee compliance training, reviewing reports provided by service providers, and maintaining books and records;

• if applicable, overseeing the selection and continued employment of the fund’s sub-advisor, reviewing the fund’s investment performance, and monitoring the sub-advisor’s adherence to the fund’s investment objectives, policies, and restrictions;

• overseeing service providers that provide accounting, administration, distribution, transfer agency, custodial, sales, marketing, public relations, audit, information technology, and legal services to the fund;

• maintaining in-house marketing and distribution departments on behalf of the fund;

• preparing or directing the preparation of all regulatory filings for the fund, including writing and annually updating the fund’s prospectus and related documents;

• for each annual report of the fund, preparing or reviewing a written summary of the fund’s performance during the most recent 12-month period ;

• monitoring and overseeing the accessibility of the fund on third-party platforms;

• paying the incentive compensation of the fund’s compliance officers and employing other staff such as legal, marketing, national accounts, distribution, sales, administrative, and trading oversight personnel, as well as management executives;

• providing a quarterly compliance certification to the Board of Trustees of Hennessy Funds Trust (the “Funds’ Board of Trustees”); and

• preparing or reviewing materials for the Funds’ Board of Trustees, presenting to or leading discussions with the Funds’ Board of Trustees, preparing or reviewing all meeting minutes, and arranging for training and education of the Funds’ Board of Trustees.

The Company earns shareholder service fees from Investor Class shares of the Hennessy Funds by, among other things, maintaining a toll-free number that the current investors in the Hennessy Funds may call to ask questions about their accounts or the funds or to get help with processing exchange and redemption requests or changing account options. These fee revenues are earned and calculated daily by the Hennessy Funds’ accountants at U.S. Bank Global Fund Services and are subsequently reviewed by management. The fees are computed and billed monthly, at which time they are recognized in accordance with Accounting Standards Codification 606 — Revenue from Contracts with Customers.

The Company waived a portion of its fees with respect to the Hennessy Cornerstone Large Growth Fund and the Hennessy Energy Transition Fund through the expiration of each fund’s expense limitation agreement on November 30, 2019, and October 25, 2020, respectively. The Company continues to waive a portion of its fees with respect to the Hennessy Midstream Fund and the Hennessy Technology Fund to comply with contractual expense ratio limitations. The fee waivers are calculated daily by the Hennessy Funds’ accountants at U.S. Bank Global Fund Services, reviewed by management, and then charged to expense monthly as offsets to the Company’s revenues. Each waived fee is then deducted from investment advisory fee income and reduces the aggregate amount of advisory fees the Company receives from such fund in the subsequent month. To date, the Company has only waived fees based on contractual obligations, but the Company has the ability to waive fees at its discretion. Any decision to waive fees would apply only on a going-forward basis.

The Company’s contractual agreements for investment advisory and shareholder services prove that a contract exists with fixed and determinable fees, and the services are rendered daily. The collectability is deemed probable because the fees are received from the Hennessy Funds in the month subsequent to the month in which the services are provided.