Doug Cornelius on compliance for private equity real estate
These are some compliance-related stories that recently caught my attention. Part 2: How Law Schools Can Champion Compliance Careers by Paul E. McGreal Law schools find themselves at a critical juncture. Many students no longer want the traditional path from law school to BigLaw, and instead, seek careers that blend legal expertise with business acumen, preventive…
The Small Business Advocate Act of 2016 established the Office of the Advocate for Small Business Capital Formation within the Securities and Exchange Commission. That Act requires an annual report of statistical information and substantive analysis. That annual report was recently released. Perhaps a bit late because Stacey Bowers, who served as the Advocate throughout…
Here are some compliance related stories that recently caught my attention. Office of Investor Advocate Report Addresses Ownership of Private Market Securities by Meredith Ervine in TheCorporateCounsel.Net In mid-December, the SEC’s Office of the Investor Advocate delivered its Report on Activities for the Fiscal Year 2025 to Congress. As highlighted in the announcement, the report provides an update on…
The Securities and Exchange Commission is proposing some definitional changes to ease its regulatory flexibility. I didn’t think much of this, putting it into the compliance arcana bucket. That is, until I took a brief look at the changes on the Fact Sheet. The SEC is proposing to increase the definition of a “small” investment…
Earlier this month, the Managed Funds Association asked the Markets Participants Division of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to issue a no-action letter related to private fund managers and registration as Commodity Pool Operators and Commodity Trading Advisors. The MFA requested confirmation that MPD will not recommend the CFTC enforcement action against a private fund…
Although the Corporate Transparency Act was largely killed last March, New York State had been working on its own version. The problem had been that the New York LLC Transparency Act was tied to the definition in the federal Corporate Transparency Act. FinCEN had limited the definition of “reporting company” to only mean entities that…
As 2026 begins, the two biggest investment management regulators are short on staff and leadership. The DOGE purge has left each agency with 10%-15% fewer numbers in headcount. President Trump has also left commission seats on each vacant. The sole remaining Democratic commissioner at the SEC, Caroline Crenshaw, left when her her term ended on…
I know some people kick off their New Year’s resolutions with a plan to read more books. Here are few of my favorites from 2025. 1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in History–and How It Shattered a Nationby Andrew Ross Sorkin If you’ve enjoyed anything by Mr. Sorkin, you’ll certainly enjoy his latest book on the…
I hope that 2026 will be a better year than 2025 and that your compliance program remains compliant. My platform has been dealing with technical issues off and on through 2025. In part, that’s why there have been fewer stories this year. I spent my holiday week dedicating some time to overhaul everything, switching some…
Legend has it that Joseph P. Kennedy Senior pulled out of the stock market in 1929 when a shoe shine boy started giving him stock tips. What to do when your driver starts giving investment advice? Shahin Ahmed was the personal driver of a hedge fund manager. According to the SEC complaint, Mr. Ahmed met…