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When the SEC comes knocking for a Marketing Rule exam, there will be a host of marketing-related materials and data that the regulator will be requesting. Amy Lynch, FrontLine’s Founder and President, is profiled in a recent ThinkAdvisor article where these items are detailed in length. She describes the various types of documents and information the SEC is most interested in seeing during an exam as they pertain to the Rule. In June, the SEC…

A recent risk alert issued by the SEC offers details on its criteria for selecting investment advisers for an examination. FrontLine Compliance Founder and President Amy Lynch is exclusively quoted in the InvestmentNews story covering the alert. Ms. Lynch discusses how the SEC provides a roadmap for investment advisers by describing how it decides which firms to examine, the compliance areas it will focus on and the documents it will request. She comments that the…

The SEC’s new private fund rule requires managers to seek a third-party perspective when conducting GP-led secondary offerings. The new rule mandates obtaining either a fairness opinion or a valuation letter from an outside party to address any conflicts of interest and validate pricing in deals. The SEC added the valuation letter option to the rule, a more informal and familiar method in private market transactions, as opposed to fairness opinions that are more common…

The SEC charged an investment adviser under the former cash solicitation rule for failing to provide required disclosures and documentation. Although the old cash solicitation rule was weaved into the new Marketing Rule, other cases based on the old rule are still in the pipeline at the SEC, explains Amy Lynch, FrontLine’s Founder and President. The recent case against Fundrise Advisors involved violations of the rule that resulted from the firm paying social media influencers…

The SEC’s new private fund rule has been adopted and advisers to private funds will face a host of new requirements. Despite softening some aspects of the rule in its final form, several significant parts of the rulemaking will mandate changes to the traditional practices of managers. Prohibitions will be required on preferential terms, usually found in side letters for negotiating special agreements with certain investors. There will also be a new requirement to provide…