Riggs Bank N.A. of Washington, DC entered into a consent order with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in July 2003, received a cease and desist order from the Federal Reserve Board later that year, and was assessed a $25 million penalty by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network...

A pooled income fund (PIF) is one of the methods created under the 1969 Tax Reform Act whereby a taxpayer may make a tax‐deductible remainder gift to a charitable organization. The fund, established by a charitable organization to receive irrevocable gifts from at least two donors, pays...

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has defined “soft dollar” practices as arrangements under which products or services, other than execution of securities transactions, are obtained by an investment adviser from or through a broker‐dealer in exchange for the direction by the...

Two potentially troublesome, but commonly accepted, trading practices that are addressed in comprehensive compliance programs are cross trading and order aggregation. Cross trading occurs when an adviser or its affiliated broker, acting as a principal, engages in a transaction with a client. An...

While the major “eye‐popping,” headline‐grabbing financial statement frauds have captured the attention of the investing public in recent years, little heed has been given to the smaller‐dollar, more repetitive frauds that occur in organizations year in and year out ‐...

Conventional wisdom dictates that if you represent a corporate entity (or even a senior corporate official) involved in a securities or other regulatory investigation ‐ whether by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Commodities...

The seeds of many litigation and arbitration matters can be found in customer complaints that precede their filing. While few broker‐dealers would subscribe to the view that customer complaints are desirable, a customer complaint often provides the first opportunity to review and assess the...

There has been tremendous focus by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) and by other parties, such as the New York Attorney General, on investment advisory fees levied by mutual funds as well as conflicts of interest between portfolio managers and their various types of...

The October 5, 2004 deadline for complying with Rule 206(4)‐7 under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 has come and gone and it’s a whole new world for compliance with rules, regulations, and regulator expectations. Much has changed with regard to compliance in our industry over the past...

Under the new Compliance Program Rules, each U.S. registered investment adviser and U.S. registered investment company was required to designate a Chief Compliance Officer (“CCO)” by October 5, 2004. The CCO title is expected to carry supervisory responsibility for many of the newly...