On April 14, 2015, the Department of Labor issued its much anticipated re-proposal of regulations defining and expanding the persons who are treated as ERISA fiduciaries. Under the proposal, subject to certain exceptions, all persons who provide investment advice or recommendations for a fee to an employer-sponsored retirement plan, plan…
In a press release yesterday, the CFTC issued an exemptive letter, CFTC Letter No. 14-116, providing relief from certain provisions of CFTC Regulations 4.7(b) and 4.13(a)(3) that restrict marketing to the public. The exemptive relief was issued to make CFTC Regulations 4.7(b) and 4.13(a)(3) consistent with SEC Rule 506(c) of…
The relentless attention being paid to cyber-attacks is driving companies to increase cyber security budgets and purchases. In turn, this has led institutional investors and asset managers to see potentially massive returns associated with companies in the cyber security market. Indeed a number of companies that have gone public have…
Written by: Jay B. Gould On October 23, 2013, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) brought charges against three different investment advisory firms for recidivist behavior. The enforcement actions came out of the SEC’s Compliance Program Initiative, which targets firms that have been previously warned by SEC examiners about compliance…
Written by: Jay Gould and Peter Chess While you were touring the Champagne region or sipping umbrella drinks at the beach this summer, the California Department of Corporations (the “DOC”) was busy overhauling the rules applicable to investment advisers. On August 27, 2012, the DOC adopted final rules, available here,…
Written by: Jay Gould and Peter Chess Heath Abshure, President of the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) and Arkansas State Securities Commissioner, sharply criticized the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (the SEC’s) new rulemaking that will lift restrictions on general solicitation and general advertising for hedge funds and other private…
Written by: Jay Gould and Peter Chess Effective December 3, 2012, hedge funds and other private funds that rely on Section 3(c)(1) of the Investment Company Act (“3(c)(1) Funds”) and which sell their interests through third party marketers, must ensure that their private placement memoranda (“PPM”) are filed with FINRA,…
Written by: Jay Gould On August 30, 2012, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) released the Dodd Frank Act’s mandated study (the “Study”) on the financial literacy of retail investors which concludes, as you might have predicted, that retail investors are essentially clueless about investing and financial matters generally. …
Under current gift tax law, any individual may make a gift of up to $5.12 million this year to the individual’s children, grandchildren and other beneficiaries without paying gift tax. Any gift in excess of that amount is taxed at a historically-low 35%. Unless Congress acts to extend (in whole…
Written by: Jay Gould and Peter Chess In a July 10, 2012, no-action letter[1], available here, issued by a Division of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (the “CFTC”) in response to requested relief from certain new CFTC registration obligations, the CFTC granted temporary relief to commodity pool operators (“CPOs”)…