Written by Jay Gould and Peter Chess On January 18, 2012, the Office of Investment Adviser Regulation, part of the Division of Investment Management, issued a no-action letter (the “2012 Letter”) in response to a request for guidance from the American Bar Association’s Subcommittee on Hedge Funds on issues regarding…
Written by Jay Gould and Peter Chess In re-proposed custody rules, the California Department of Corporations (“DOC”) has reflected the most important aspects of the comment letter that Pillsbury provided on July 27, 2011, such that all transactions and short positions need not be disclosed in the quarterly account statements. …
Written by Jay Gould and Peter Chess Managed Funds Association (“MFA”) submitted a comment letter (the “Letter”) to the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) on January 6, 2012 with a rulemaking petition requesting the SEC to amend Rule 502(c) of Regulation D under the Securities Act of 1933. The Letter…
Written by Jay Gould, Ildiko Duckor and Peter Chess On January 4, 2012, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) released a National Examination Risk Alert addressing investment adviser use of social media. Investment advisers should have policies regarding the use of social media, and the SEC outlined specific factors that…
Written by Peter J. Chess On November 30, 2011, FINRA and the SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) released a National Exam Risk Alert on effective procedures and policies for broker-dealer branch inspections. This follows other recent guidance for broker-dealers regarding the Market Access Rule and reasonable investigations…
Written by Ildiko Duckor An entity that meets the definition of a “Large Trader” after October 3, 2011 must file its initial Form 13H with the SEC by December 1, 2011 to be assigned a large trader identification number (LTID). The filing is done electronically through the SEC’s EDGAR system. …
Written by Jay Gould On November 28, 2011, the SEC charged OMNI Investment Advisors, Inc. of Utah, Feltl & Company Inc. of Minneapolis and Asset Advisors LLC of Troy, Michigan for failing to adopt and implement compliance procedures designed to prevent securities law violations. The three enforcement actions discussed below…
Written by Jay Gould On Wednesday, November 16, 2011, the SEC charged Morgan Stanley Investment Management (“MSIM”) with violating securities laws in a fee arrangement that costs a fund and its investors approximately $1.8 million in sub-adviser fees. MSIM is the primary adviser to The Malaysia Fund (the “Fund”), a…
Written by John L. Nicholson On October 13, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Division of Corporation Finance released CF Disclosure Guidance: Topic No. 2 – Cybersecurity (the “Guidance”), which is intended to instruct companies on whether and how to disclose the impact of the risk and cost of cybersecurity incidents…
Written by Jay Gould On October 18, 2011, the SEC released a notice of FINRA’s filing of Proposed Rule 5123 (the “Proposed Rule”) which would require FINRA members and associated persons to: 1) provide to investors disclosure documents in connection with private placements prior to sale and 2) file with…