Doug Cornelius on compliance for private equity real estate
The Securities and Exchange Commission issued a proposal to rescind its “pay-to-play” rule that prohibits investment advisers from making certain political contributions. “The Commission has determined that the political contribution rule, since its adoption in 2010, has led to significant unintended consequences, such as prohibitions by some advisers on political contributions at the state and…
The Securities and Exchange Commission charged 38 firms with filing material misrepresentations in their Forms ADV. The SEC alleges that the goal was to falsely portray themselves as legitimate advisory firms to U.S. investors. There were a similar half-dozen of these cases at the end of 2025. In the Bluesky Case, the SEC went to…
The Institutional Limited Partners Association issued new guidance on the longstanding practice of limited partners bearing the cost of fund formation legal expenses. “What once made economic sense—requiring LPs to cover organizational expenses when the industry was nascent and GPs lacked sufficient capital—has become an outdated practice that now enables systematic cost-shifting by highly profitable…
I’ve periodically taken a look at the Private Equity Real Estate’s list of the top firms, based on fundraising. The 2026 edition was published today. I took a swing at the analysis again (with a little help). The 2026 PERE manager rankings are based on the amount of private real estate direct investment capital raised…
As private fund compliance officers shake off the work of the most recent Form PF, I decided to finally take a look at what the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission are thinking about changing to Form PF. On April 20, the SEC and CFTC proposed amendments to Form PF and its…
The prediction market platforms, Kalshi and Polymarkets have exploded this year. In some cases, for bad reasons: Federal prosecutors are exploring whether prediction market bets trip insider trading laws. The markets are not supposed to be taking predictions on the movements of securities. That would make them a derivative of a security and subject to…
In fiscal year 2025, the Securities and Exchange Commission had a departure of 18% of its employees. The SEC’s Division of Investment Management lost 24% of its staff during fiscal year 2025. What is the effect of the departure? The GAO had interviews with several dozen SEC employees. We’ll see how this affects the SEC….
“BREAKING NEWS THE [Politician] PORTFOLIO ON DUB SOARED +7.77% TODAY, HITTING A NEW ALL TIME HIGH OF +120%” This proposed marketing blurb was submitted at 2:31 pm., before the markets has closed for the day. As the Massachusetts Secretary of State pointed out, that is not performance for the day. It’s only performance for part…
If you’re going to tell your clients that their money will be invested according to a particular strategy, you need to invest it according to that strategy. If you say that “portfolio management services are based on Modern Portfolio Theory” then you should do so. Should you invest 70% of the client’s assets according to…
Lots of advisers track the FINRA gift limit of $100. Some specifically because they have dual registration. More use that limit because it became a de facto industry standard because it was the only one out there. The current gift limit of $100 has been in place since 1992. That was way too low. FINRA…