Category Archives: SEC
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) recently adopted Rule 13h-1 that would require “large traders” to file new Form 13H with the SEC through its Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis and Retrieval (EDGAR) System. Rule 13h-1 defines “large trader” as any person or entity, including investment advisers, that “directly or indirectly, including through other persons [...]
Posted by Bryan Hill
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn can be useful business tools for investment advisers. However, there are several compliance issues that social media sites present. While the US Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) has not released any specific rules or guidance on the topic, there are several existing rules that investment advisers [...]
Posted by Bryan Hill
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
The Department of Labor recently required Bank of America to rehire and pay $930,000 to an employee who was fired for whistleblowing. The employee had been leading an internal investigation looking into wire, mail and bank fraud at Countrywide Financial, which merged with Bank of America in 2008. Shortly after the two companies merged, the [...]
Posted by Bryan Hill
Thursday, September 22, 2011
As a result of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) recently amended Rule 205-3 of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, which exempts a “qualified client” from the general prohibition against an investment advisor charging a fee based upon the share of capital gains or [...]
Posted by Bryan Hill
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Prior to conducting Tuesday’s hearing on whether to form a self-regulatory organization (“SRO”) for investment advisers, the Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Rep. Spencer Bachus posted a draft bill on the Committee’s website. The draft bill would form a self-regulatory organization for investment advisers under what would be known as the “Investment Adviser [...]
Posted by Bryan Hill
Friday, September 16, 2011
Today, September 13, the House Committee on Financial Services conducted a hearing to discuss forming a self-regulatory organization (“SRO”) for investment advisers. There were three oversight options discussed, (1) having the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) charge a user fee to provide funds for more frequent regulatory examinations; (2) creating an independent SRO; and (3) [...]
Posted by Bryan Hill
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
The best approach for an investment adviser firm to prepare for a regulatory examination begins with ongoing compliance training. A report released by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC) on February 2011, stated “In most cases, the staff considers the quality of the [investment adviser’s] compliance systems and its internal control environment when determining [...]
Posted by Bryan Hill
Friday, September 9, 2011
A lot of important information regarding the upcoming requirement for mid-sized advisors to switch from SEC to state registration was provided during the recent webinar, “The Switch is On Again for RIAs,” hosted by Advisor4Advisor and presented by Tammy Emsick of RIA Compliance Consultants. Therefore, we would like reiterate a few of the main points [...]
Your investment adviser’s chief compliance officer (“CCO”) must be knowledgeable regarding the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, competent in regard to administering your compliance program and empowered to enforce compliance with your policies and procedures. Your investment adviser’s CCO is responsible for administering your investment advisers’ policies and procedures. This does not necessarily mean that [...]
In a recent speech, Robert Khuzami, the Director of the Division of Enforcement for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), discussed the SEC’s new whistleblower program and the role internal investigations will play. Pursuant to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the SEC has created a whistleblower program that allows the [...]
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