Securities Law & Corporate Counsel Blog

Financial advisers and broker-dealers should conduct thorough and frequent reviews of their clients’ holdings in certain Chinese companies now that a November Executive Order that prohibits new U.S. investments in companies with alleged ties to China’s military has taken effect.

The U.S. Securities Exchange Commission’s has issued its new modernized Advertising Rule that is intended to replace the existing Advertising and Cash Solicitation Rules.  The SEC release relating to the new Advertising Rule is a 430 page behemoth that will create a significant change to the manner in which advisers conduct their advertising and marketing activities.

If you ask the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) which two things Chief Compliance Officers (CCOs) could benefit from most in the coming year, you might be surprised that time and money aren’t at the top of the list.

It’s that time of year again for many investment advisory firms when Compliance departments often spend the end of the calendar year reviewing their policies and procedures to meet the annual requirements set forth in Rule 206(4)-7, better known as the “Compliance Rule” under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. 

In today's remote work environment, cybersecurity has become one of the Industry's largest vulnerable components when servicing clients. As majority of the Industry has migrated to remote work and new communication technologies, this has forced more data and information to be susceptible to risk. In this blog post, we will discuss material nonpublic information and how we believe this will be an area of additional focus as the Industry gears up for 2021.

In general, small businesses tend to be more vulnerable in an economic downturn because they lack the financial cushion many larger companies have. Since the creation of the Federal Reserve System in 1913, large businesses have benefited from a more favorable regulatory framework and from liquidity backstops that the Fed has used to fortify weakness in financial markets.

The comment period has closed on the third round of proposed changes to the California Consumer Protection Act ("CCPA"), which were announced October 12, 2020, by the California Office of the Attorney General. There are a number of disputes regarding how the proposed revisions will impact a California consumer, but a number of the proposed revisions appear to address the manner in which a consumer may engage in the opt-out collection process.

In a previous blog post, we discussed a few key areas for consideration regarding a firm's annual review. We covered the integral area of the Code of Ethics - but in today's blog post we focus on the importance of analyzing your firm's policies regarding custody.