2016 is a leap year. That means there was an extra day in February. That moves the deadline for investment advisors and registered fund managers for filing Form ADV from March 31 to March 30. In other words, Form ADV is due today. Hopefully that has not caught you off guard. If it has, you … Read more »
Designated Lenders Counsel and Compliance
If you own a home, there was likely a lawyer sitting at the closing table. Who paid for the lawyer and who did the lawyer represent? You paid, but the lawyer worked for the bank. She or he was there to make sure the bank’s interests were protected. There was recent coverage of a similar … Read more »
Warding Off Unethical Behavior
Legend has it that if you string garlic around your house, you can ward off vampires. What if there was something similar you could do to ward off unethical behavior in the workplace? Apparently, religious symbols may keep you away from an unethical boss. A forthcoming study in the Academy of Management Journal found that … Read more »
A $81 Million Dollar Hole in Anti-Money Laundering Laws
I’m vastly understating that number. We know that thieves planned to run that much through the Philippines gambling establishments. It’s a clear case of appeasing a local industry by writing loopholes in legislation. A month ago, thieves began looting Bangladesh’s account at the New York Federal Reserve. The transfer of the money had been “fully … Read more »
Compliance Bricks and Mortar for March 18
These are some of the compliance-related stories that recently caught my attention. Five Questions for Our SEC Commissioner Nominees by Matt Kelly in Radical Compliance How would you strike the balance between investor access to information and companies’ ability to raise capital easily? We have already seen reduced disclosure obligations for newly public companies thanks … Read more »
Compliance and St. Patrick’s Day
My office is next door to Boston’s famous Irish pub, The Black Rose. It’s hard to ignore the celebrations, with patrons going in for a pint, while I’m going into my office. So I had to find a compliance angle. One of the miracles attributed to St. Patrick as part of his sainthood was driving … Read more »
The SEC’s New Office of Risk and Strategy
Whenever the Securities and Exchange Commission reorganizes you have to wonder what the impact will be on those subject to regulation by the SEC. Earlier, the SEC announced a new Office of Risk and Strategy within the Office of Compliance Inspections and Examination. “The Office of Risk and Strategy will lead our exam program’s risk-based, … Read more »
Compliance Pie
Sometimes I’ve heard that the reward for a job is like winning a pie eating contest and finding out the prize is a pie. Is compliance like a pie eating contest? It seems to me that compliance only continues to get more complex and demanding. Companies will continue to do bad things. Legislators and regulators … Read more »
Adviser is Fined For Shortchanging Himself on Fees
Anyone in compliance and anyone running a fund knows that the Securities and Exchange Commission is laser-focused on fees being charged to investors. Marco Investment Management got it wrong and was subject to an order by the SEC. But, the firm actually short-changed itself. Marco’s advisory agreements with its clients called for a fee to … Read more »
Videogame Failure and Securities Fraud
As a Red Sox fan, Curt Schilling is an iconic player to me, leading the team to break the curse of the Bambino. I don’t think that leads to him being a successful entrepreneur or video game developer. Nonetheless, he invested a great deal of his own wealth and raised a big pile of capital … Read more »