It’s amazing to me that we have gone from having unexplored areas on Earth to sending a spaceship to Pluto in less than 150 years. Hampton Sides’ In The Kingdom of Ice tells the story of terrible journey to find the North Pole. (If you’re interested in Pluto, New Horizons is approaching the dwarf planet … Read more »
Compliance Bricks and Mortar for May 8
These are some of the compliance-related stories that recently caught my attention: Cyber Insurance: A Pragmatic Approach to a Growing Necessity by John Reed Stark and David R. Fontaine in Cybersecurity Docket To manage this burgeoning yet still nascent threat, just like other routine day-to-day risk and hazards, companies have started to include cybersecurity concerns … Read more »
Private Equity Real Estate Top 50 – 2015 Edition of Who is Registered
Private Equity Real Estate has released its ranking of the top 50 real estate private equity fund managers. As I have done in the past, I parsed the list to see which managers are registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission as investment advisers. (Disclosure: my company is on the list.) — Name of institution … Read more »
Want to Buy a Boston Skyscraper?
The old fraud was someone selling you the Empire State Building. A new company wants you to buy State Street Financial Center in downtown Boston. But it’s not a fraud; just a focused real estate investment. Commercial real estate involves big chunks of capital. Some of those investments will meet underwriting, some will be home … Read more »
Can A Fund Pay for the Manager’s Office Expenses?
This is not a question that you can answer without any background. Theoretically, a fund can directly pay a fund’s office expenses. It’s just that most investors do not expect to pay for a manager’s office expenses. Investors expect the management fee they pay to cover those expenses, with the rest as profit for the … Read more »
Compliance Bricks and Mortar for May 1
These are some of the compliance-related stories that recently caught my attention. Wall Street Pushes Back on Foreign Bribery Probe by Jean Eaglesham, Emily Glazer Ned Levin in the Wall Street Journal The previously unreported campaign by banks goes to the heart of a wide-ranging inquiry into whether they ran afoul of U.S. antibribery laws … Read more »
SEC Issues Cybersecurity Guidance
Last year, the SEC raised a cloud of concern when it started its cybersecurity initiative aimed at broker/dealers, investment advisers and fund managers. Based on an interview last month it seems that initiative would continue into a phase 2. The SEC recently released its Cybersecurity Guidance that enunciates some steps investment advisers and fund managers … Read more »
Finding That Rogue Employee
JPMorgan Chase & Co. has racked up more than $36 billion in legal bills since the financial crisis. The firm clearly has incentive to identify rogue employees before they go astray. According a story in Bloomberg, the firm is rolling out a new surveillance tool to identify potential rogue employees. I’m skeptical. I attended a … Read more »
Model Business Continuity Rule for Investment Advisers
There is no explicit requirement that an adviser or fund manager have a disaster recovery plan. But any manager trying to fund-raise knows that investors will ask about its business continuity plan. The SEC sort of requires SEC registered investment advisers to have a business continuity plan. It’s an easy one to miss in Rule … Read more »
Weekend Riding: Midnight Boston Marathon Bike Ride
While marathon runners were sleeping in anticipation of the race on Patriots Day, I joined hundreds of cyclists to bike the 26.2 miles in the middle of the night. The Midnight Marathon Bike Ride was back for its seventh year in a row. Short of actually running, I thought it was a great way to … Read more »