Doug Cornelius on compliance for private equity real estate
The tenure of Gary Gensler as Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission coincided with the rapid rise and then fall of crypto. Acting Chairman Mark T. Uyeda started his sure-to-be brief tenure by launching a crypto task force “dedicated to developing a comprehensive and clear regulatory framework for crypto assets.” There will clearly be … Read more »
A Minnesota court threw out an expert statement because it was generated by AI and included fake references. The case involved a Minnesota Stat. § 609.771 that bans people from using deepfake media to influence elections. Jeff Hancock, a misinformation specialist and a Stanford University communication professor, used fake article citations generated by AI to … Read more »
[Edited] On January 23, the US Supreme Court agreed to stay the injunction issued by Eastern District Of Texas that had halted the final implementation of the Corporate Transparency Act. That means the filing deadline for Beneficial Ownership Information reporting is back. Theoretically, that deadline was January 13 and most companies are currently in violation. … Read more »
On Wednesday, the Institutional Limited Partners Association released updates to its ILPA Reporting Template and a new ILPA Performance Template. The goal is to enhance standardization, transparency and comparability in reporting across geographies for private funds. I assume this release is a response to the failure of the Private Fund Rules that the Securities and … Read more »
An investment adviser has an non-waivable fiduciary duty to its clients. If you try to waive the fiduciary or deceive your clients into thinking its waivable, the Securities and Exchange Commission is going to be unhappy with you. These waivers of fiduciary duty are often called “hedge clauses.” The SEC settled charges against a registered investment adviser … Read more »
Before the current backlash in the political environment, many investors were very focused on making investment that took into account positive environmental, social, and governance factors. Invesco wanted to meet the needs of its investors by saying that it had “over 94% of AUM currently integrating ESG.” That’s a great goal. If it was true. … Read more »
Inspire Investing advertises its ETF as “biblically responsible investing.” The obvious problem is how you define what is biblical. If it were so easy to define would we would not have so many sects and theologies of Christianity and Judaism. Inspire came up with its own methodology for excluding companies. A company is automatically given … Read more »
I’m old enough to remember when stock prices were quoted in eights. They had been marked that way for 200 years on the New York stock exchange. Then they were shifted to decimals. That pushed the bid-ask spread for many stocks to $.01. Now that penny limit is being cut in half. The Securities and … Read more »
The Marketing Rule, Advisers Act Rule 206(4)-1, Section (e)(1) defines hypothetical performance as “performance results that were not actually achieved by any portfolio of the investment adviser and includes, but is not limited to: It’s okay to use hypothetical performance in your marketing materials, IF (that’s a big if) the adviser adopts and implements policies … Read more »
If you’re going to commit financial fraud, you need to figure out a way not only to deceive your “investors” but also the gatekeepers involved in the process. Your auditor is going to ask questions and not issue financial statements if there is fraud. Your prime broker and custodian are going to ask questions. Hedonova … Read more »