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Asset Management ADVocate

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SEC Staff and Chair Talk Examination Priorities (For the Time Being At Least)

Speaking at a compliance workshop sponsored by the Investment Adviser Association held in Atlanta on November 10, 2016, Bill Royer, Associate Director of the SEC examination program in the Atlanta Regional Office of the SEC laid out the priorities that he expected the SEC's Office of Compliance Inspections and Examination (OCIE) to focus on in the coming year. Novel topics for OCIE in 2017, accor

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The State of the SEC’s Admissions Policy: Three Years Later

In June 2013, SEC Chair Mary Jo White announced a new SEC policy requiring admissions as part of settlements in certain types of cases. The criteria f

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Could Blockchain Push Syndicated Loans over the Regulatory Edge?

Some banks are hard at work applying distributed ledger technology to trading syndicated loan transactions. Their system would make it easier than ever to invest in syndicated bank loans.

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What Hath FSOC Wrought?

(This post has been updated for October 31st data.) The SEC released its money market fund statistics for the end of October, giving us a comprehensive view of the impact of the reforms which took effect on October 14th.

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SEC Enforcement Staff Touts Year of Firsts and Big Data

Last week, at the Securities Enforcement Forum in Washington, DC, senior staff of the SEC's Division of Enforcement shed light on risks that asset managers and fund boards should be aware of. Their comments followed a record enforcement year resulting in more than $4 billion in disgorgement and penalties. Fueled in part by data col

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New Additions and Perspectives

We are pleased to welcome Carl Frischling, Aviva Grossman, Alex Alberstadt, and Mark Parise as members of Perkins Coie's Investment Management practice. Most readers of this blog will recognize Carl Frischling, named as a Senior Statesman by Chambers USA and as a leading lawyer by the Legal 500.

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Update for September 1 Fund Subscriptions: New “Qualified Client” Standard

Effective August 15, 2016 for SEC-registered investment advisers, most funds or separate accounts that are subject to a performance fee or allocation need to raise their "qualified client" net worth threshold for new investors, new investments from existing investors, or new separate account agreements, from $2 million to $2.1 million. Other thresholds (such as the same provision's $1 millio

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Form ADV Amendments: Relying Advisers in Focus

Currently, many investment advisory firms indicate to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on their Form ADV filings that they have "relying advisers." With the SEC's adoption on August 25, 2016, of amendments to Form ADV, the landscape for related advisers has changed substantially under a

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More Sanctions from Private Equity Fees: W.L. Ross

Shortly after my post on the SEC's recent settlement with Apollo Global Management went up, the SEC released a settlement with another private equity fund manager: W.L. Ross & Co.

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Apollo Global Management Settles with the SEC

Four affiliates of Apollo Global Management settled with the SEC by paying $52.7 million (disgorgement of $37.5 million, prejudgment interest of $2.7 million, and a civil money penalty of $12.5 million) and were issued a cease-and-desist order.

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CFTC Limits Investment of Client Funds to Government Money Market Funds

Two recent letters from the CFTC staff hold that, beginning October 14, 2016, its regulations will prohibit investment of client funds by futures commission merchants ("FCMs") and

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How to Sort out the Clients of a Family Office Attorney

Our previous post illustrated ethical quagmires that can result when a staff attorney of a family office tries to negotiate the potentially conflicting interests of the family's members.

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Who Is Your Intended?—Defining the Engagement of an Attorney Employed by a Family Office

Family offices continue to multiply and the industry professionals who provide services to them have grown. The typical single-family office has president, a chief operations officer, a chief investment officer and a chief financial officer. In many cases, the office may employ one or more lawyers on staff.

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Section 4(c) of the 1933 Act: The Orphan Exception from Broker-Dealer Registration – Part Two

My first post discussed the requirements for the Section 4(c) exemption from broker-dealer registration added by the JOBS Act.

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Section 4(c) of the 1933 Act: The Orphan Exception from Broker-Dealer Registration - Part One

We have previously discussed the long-running saga regarding whether transaction-based compensation related to non-public sales of securities require registration as a broker-dealer under the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934 ("Exchange Act"). Our discussions have included (i)