Doug Cornelius

Compliance Bricks and Mortar for November 8

By Doug Cornelius

November 8, 2019

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These are some of the compliance-related stories that recently caught my attention. The 2020 U.S. Election is Here: How is Your Firm Monitoring Political Contributions and Government Relationships?by Elaine VincentACA Compliance While the SEC certainly has plenty of responsibilities on its plate, based on precedent it is likely that the regulator will step up enforcement and investigation of potential play-to-play situations in an election year. And even if your firm makes it through the…

Compliance Building

SEC Proposes to Modernize the Advertising Rules for Investment Advisers

By Doug Cornelius

November 6, 2019

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I had my coffee ready and headphones on to listen to Tuesday morning’s Securities and Exchange Commission open meeting for Item 3: “Investment Adviser Advertisements; Compensation for Solicitations.” After cancelling a appointment to watch it, I discovered that Item 3 had been taken off the meeting agenda. The SEC voted on Monday to propose amendments to modernize the rules under the Investment Advisers Act addressing investment adviser advertisements and payments to solicitors. The proposed rule…

Compliance Building

The One With The Silenced Investors

By Doug Cornelius

November 5, 2019

In response to Dodd-Frank, the SEC adopted Rule 21F-17 in August 2011, which provides: (a) No person may take any action to impede an individual from communicating directly with the Commission staff about a possible securities law violation, including enforcing, or threatening to enforce, a confidentiality agreement . . . with respect to such communications. I have mostly heard stories about violation of the rule as applied to employee severance agreements or employment agreements.…

Compliance Building

The One With The Silenced Investors

By Doug Cornelius

November 5, 2019

Compliance Building

Compliance Bricks and Mortar – Post Halloween Edition

By Doug Cornelius

November 1, 2019

These are some of the compliance-related stories that I read recently while getting ready for Halloween. It’s the Great Pumpkin: Lessons in Process Validation Through Monitoringby Tom FoxFCPA Compliance & Ethics The compliance lesson from Linus’ adventure; it is process validation. Unlike Santa Claus, who we have been repeatedly told “Yes, Virginia there is a Santa Claus”; there has been no process validation for the Great Pumpkin. Linus faints when he thinks he sees…

Compliance Building

CCO Indicted for Obstruction of Justice

By Doug Cornelius

October 24, 2019

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I don’t like compliance officers being dragged into enforcement actions. If they are involved in the wrongdoing or are just a wholesale failure at compliance, I understand the desire for regulators to take aim at a CCO. The charges against Michael Cohn as a CCO are extremely bad. Mr. Cohn was the managing director and chief compliance officer at GPB Capital Holdings. Just prior to joining GPB he was compliance examiner at the Securities and…

Compliance Building

Reg BI and Form CRS Checklist

By Doug Cornelius

October 16, 2019

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FINRA released some needed guidance to help firms comply with the new broker investment advice standards and disclosure requirements of Regulation Best Interest and the new client disclosure document Form CRS. The checklist is available on the FINRA website:https://www.finra.org/sites/default/files/2019-10/reg-bi-checklist.pdf . If you have responsibility for broker-dealer compliance the checklist looks like a great tool. About The Author Doug Cornelius You can find out more about Doug on the About Doug page…

Compliance Building

Boards Must Rigourously Exercise Their Oversight Function

By Doug Cornelius

October 15, 2019

“[T]o satisfy their duty of loyalty, directors must make a good faith effort to implement an oversight system and then monitor it.” Marchand v. Barnhill, 212 A.3d 805 (Del. 2019) Clovis Oncology’s stock dropped sharply in 2015 when it disclosed poor clinical trial results for Rociletinib a promising experimental drug for the treatment of lung cancer. That meant the FDA was unlikely to approve Rociletinib to enter the market. Shareholder lawsuits ensued. The claim was…

Compliance Building

Credit Lines and Fund Performance

By Doug Cornelius

October 14, 2019

Dr. Christoph Jäckel, a Director of Montana Capital Partners AG, wades into the discussions about fund credit facilities with some new research he published in Private Funds CFO. His findings? A credit line increases IRR for most funds by only one percentage point. Of course, it’s a bit more complicated than that. The average in his findings was 4%, but that was inflated by a few, very well-performing funds. The study looks at funds…

Compliance Building

Compliance Bricks and Mortar for October 11

By Doug Cornelius

October 11, 2019

These are some of the compliance-related stories that recently caught my attention. The Cost to Retail Investors and Public Markets of “Harmonizing” Securities Offering ExemptionsBy Erik F. GerdingThe CLS Blue Sky Blog Investing in private securities would pose considerable additional risks for retail investors, relative to investing in public securities, and existing research suggests that these additional risks would not be sufficiently offset by higher expected returns. In fact, if retail investors are given…

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Compliance Bricks and Mortar for November 8

SEC Proposes to Modernize the Advertising Rules for Investment Advisers

The One With The Silenced Investors

The One With The Silenced Investors

Compliance Bricks and Mortar – Post Halloween Edition

CCO Indicted for Obstruction of Justice

Reg BI and Form CRS Checklist

Boards Must Rigourously Exercise Their Oversight Function

Credit Lines and Fund Performance

Compliance Bricks and Mortar for October 11

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