Doug Cornelius on compliance for private equity real estate
Funds use a lines of credit to fund capital. The most common is a bridge between funding an investment and calling capital from investors. Based on a poll the audience indicated a wide range of uses and durations for their credit lines. Some indicated that they use the credit line to fund capital to portfolio … Read more »
Investors have increased their focus on Environmental, Social and Governance issues. This panel focused on the compliance role in ESG. According to a poll at the conference, about half of the attendees have a written ESG policy and consider ESG as part of their strategy. There is the balance between wanting to invest for good … Read more »
GDPR is big boogeyman right now. The General Data Protection Regulation has a compliance deadline rapidly approaching in the EU. It protects the personal data of EU residents. It has extra-territorial implications. Firms need consent for use of the data or a specific business relationship. Data breach notifications have to be made within 72 hours. … Read more »
To the extent you are managing risk at your firm, are you managing the risks at your underlying investments. The SEC has been asking about this topic in exams. The most obvious area is cybersecurity. Many of those requirements are not dependent on the company, so cybersecurity compliance carries over. Compliance can create value to … Read more »
Volume of secondary sales is dramatically higher this year, compared to last year. $58 billion. One of the key aspects that secondary purchasers like is avoidance of the blind pool. Usually, the fund is far along in allocating capital. To some extent, it avoids the J-curve problem. Secondaries are able to return capital back to … Read more »
What is the compliance officers’s role in fees and expenses policies and procedures? Compliance may not make the decision, but will be responsible for documenting the agreed-upon allocation. Compliance will be responsible for monitoring. Some allocations can be based on the compliance manual or desktop accounting processes. The SEC wants to make sure you document … Read more »
A panelists of fund compliance officers was moderator by a lawyer. The regulatory landscape is changing rapidly, so the compliance function needs to be able to change rapidly. Compliance should have a seat at the table and be embedded in key functions with conflicts and regulatory concerns. Bolted on compliance will be less effective. It’s … Read more »
I’m in New York for PEI Media’s Private Fund Compliance Forum 2018. If you are here in attendance, grab a guy with a bowtie and say “hi” to me. Depending on how many other people are wearing bowties, there is good chance it will be me. I’ll be typing up my notes and sending them … Read more »
Years ago we had heard that the Securities and Exchange Commission was looking at issues related to group purchasing agreements with private equity portfolio companies. A case has been announced. The SEC brought action against WCAS Management which runs the Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe private equity funds. According to the order, WCAS entered into an … Read more »
These are some of the compliance-related stories that recently caught my attention. SEC Adds Fuel to the Best-Interest Fire by Aron Szapiro Many of us probably have fiduciary rule whiplash. On March 15, a court struck down the Department of Labor’s rules package, known as the fiduciary rule, placing in limbo the new rules as … Read more »