The California Court of Appeal recently struck a post-employment non-competition provision in an employment agreement which was part of a broader acquisition deal. The opinion, Fillpoint, LLC v. Mass (August 24, 2012), demonstrates California’s strong public policy in favor of…
On September 21, 2012, Governor Brown signed Senate Bill 323 (Vargas) (the “Bill”) into law. Specifically, Section 20 of the Bill adds the California Revised Uniform Limited Liability Company Act (“RULLCA”) to the Corporations Code to govern the formation and operation…
Last month, the California Court of Appeal in San Francisco issued an opinion in Lickiss v. Financial Industry Regulatory Authority explicitly permitting courts across the state to use an equitable balancing test in order to determine whether a broker’s CRD…
Yesterday the Securities and Exchange Commission instituted administrative proceedings against nationally syndicated radio personality and author Raymond J. Lucia. Lucia is the owner of Raymond J. Lucia Companies, Inc., a former federally registered investment adviser doing business as RJL Wealth…
The SEC Whistleblower Program (the “Program”), which became a final rule on August 12, 2011, provides incentives and protection to whistleblowers who provide the SEC with original information about violations of the federal securities laws. Under the Program, an “eligible…
This week the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight (DSIO) published a set of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) addressing compliance obligations for Commodity Pool Operators (CPOs) and Commodity Trading Advisors (CTAs). The FAQs address a…
ERISA Rule 404a-5 was enacted in order to provide greater transparency to investors in 401(k) type pension plans. The rule was adopted two years ago, but the August 30, 2012 deadline for plan administrators to issue the required disclosures is…
FINRA recently published Regulatory Notice 12-25 to provide broker-dealers with additional guidance on the SRO’s new suitability rule, which took effect on July 9th. The new suitability standards under Rule 2111 were approved by the SEC in November, 2010. They were initially…
During the June 6th hearing of the House Financial Services Committee, legislation was introduced by Representative Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.) that would create a new self-regulatory organization for Registered Investment Advisers “(RIA”) (H.R. 4624). During that session Representative Maxine Waters (D-Calif.)…
On July 17, 2012 the California Department of Corporations Commission filed final amendments to Section 260.204.9 of Title 10 of the California Code of Regulations with the state’s Office of Administrative Law (OAL). As reported here earlier this year, the…