“Eliminating placement agents as a group because there were a few bad actors who have tarnished the industry is analogous to eliminating Major League Baseball because several of its players behaved illegally.” Steven Schwarzman, The Blackstone Group’s chairman and chief executive, has submitted a comment letter on the SEC’s proposed ban on placement agents interacting … Read more »
Category: Investment Advisers Act
Reasons Why the SEC Wants to Regulate Political Contributions
The SEC has proposed a New Rule on Political Contributions by Certain Investment Advisers to prevent advisers from participating in pay to play practices affecting the management of public pension plans. They had proposed a similar rule in 1999. Many of the comments to that rule said that pay to play was not a problem … Read more »
New SEC Rule on Political Contributions by Certain Investment Advisers
The SEC has just published the text of the proposed rule on political contributions by investment advisers. SEC voted unanimously to propose this rule at its July 22nd Open Meeting. http://www.sec.gov/rules/proposed/2009/ia-2910.pdf The proposed rule is intended to curtail “pay to play” practices by investment advisers that seek to manage money for state and local governments. … Read more »
SEC Proposes Measures to Curtail “Pay to Play” Practices
At yesterday’s Open Meeting, the SEC voted unanimously to propose measures intended to curtail “pay to play” practices by investment advisers that seek to manage money for state and local governments. In 1999, the SEC considered a proposal to curb adviser pay to play practices modeled on MSRB Rule G37 that applies to underwriters of … Read more »
SEC Releases Proposed Custody Rules for Investment Advisers
On May 14, the Securities Exchange Commission said they were proposing New Custody Rules for Investment Advisers. They summarized the proposed rules but did not release the actual text of the proposed rules. Now the proposed rules are available in Release No. IA-2876 (.pdf). Comments must be received on or before July 28, 2009. SUMMARY: … Read more »
New Custody Rules for Investment Advisers
The Securities and Exchange Commission proposed rule amendments as part of their Open Meeting on May 14, 2009. They talked about the proposed rules, but have not actually made them available. It is hard to judge the potential impact of the rules with being able to see them. According to the press release and the … Read more »
Perspectives on Hedge Fund Registration
On Thursday, May 7, 2009, 11:00 a.m., the Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance, and Government Sponsored Enterprises will hold a hearing on: “Perspectives on Hedge Fund Registration” The Committee will be offering a live webcast of the hearing. Read more »
Advertising Limitations for Investment Advisers on Social Networking Sites
While FINRA has a very strict limitation on advertisements focusing on procedures, investment advisers have a principles driven approach to limitations on advertising. To start, an advertisement is any communication addressed to more than one person that offers (1) analysis concerning a security, (2) any information to used in making a determination to buy to … Read more »
Hedge Fund Adviser Registration Act of 2009
Congressmen Mike Capuano of Massachusetts and Mike Castle of Delaware introduced the Hedge Fund Adviser Registration Act of 2009 (H.R. 711). The Act, if passed, would delete Section 203(b)(3) from the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. This section of the Investment Advisers Act exempts from registration an investment adviser who has fewer than 15 clients … Read more »
Using the Attorney-Client Privilege to Protect Drafts of SEC Filings
Mintz Levin published a client alert about the Roth v. Aon case I mentioned a few days ago: Draft SEC Filings Can Be Protected From Discovery. The lawyers at Mintz have these recommendations: Disclosures that involve legal judgments, discussions of pending litigation, and business matters that the company must disclose for compliance purposes should be … Read more »