Insights

On June 21, 2018, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued a mandate that officially vacated the Department of Labor’s advice fiduciary rule, which generally had gone into effect for investments made on or after June 9, 2017. For discussion of the Fifth Circuit’s March 15th, 2018, decision to vacate the…

Client Alerts | July 27, 2018 | Hedge Funds

On June 21, 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision in Lucia v. Securities and Exchange Commission, finding that the SEC’s system of appointing administrative law judges (ALJs) by the SEC staff, rather than by the SEC commissioners themselves, is unconstitutional.   The case resolved a split between the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the…

Client Alerts | June 27, 2018 | Hedge Funds

On June 5, 2018, the Board of the National Futures Association (NFA) approved the development of a proficiency requirements program for “associated persons” (APs) of registered commodity pool operators (CPOs) and commodity trading advisors (CTAs) engaged in swaps activities. The proficiency program will be in the form of an online learning program with an embedded…

Client Alerts | June 14, 2018 | Derivatives | Hedge Funds

On June 1, 2018, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) announced settlements with 13 registered investment advisers whom the SEC alleged had repeatedly failed to file required annual reports on Form PF over multi-year periods. [1]  SEC-registered advisers to private funds with $150 million or more in regulatory assets under management are required to…

Client Alerts | June 13, 2018 | Hedge Funds

On May 31, 2018, Connecticut enacted the “Act Concerning Connecticut’s Response to Federal Tax Reform”. Among other things, the Act imposes a 6.99% tax on certain pass-through entities (which, prior to the Act, were not subject to any Connecticut entity-level income tax). This tax may have significant implications for fund managers and other businesses with…

Client Alerts | June 12, 2018 | Hedge Funds

Given the recent attention in the media on investing in hedge funds without paying taxes on current income, it seems well timed to revisit the basic elements of insurance dedicated funds for the sake of the fund manager that might be interested in adding such a product to their platform in order to attract new…

Client Alerts | June 6, 2018 | Hedge Funds

The Cayman Islands Department for International Tax Cooperation (“DITC”) has announced that the Cayman AEOI Portal (for Common Reporting Standard (“CRS”) and US FATCA reporting) will be taken offline on Friday, June 1, 2018, at 12:00 noon. The statutory deadline for 2017 CRS and US FATCA reports remains May 31, 2018.  The DITC intends for…

Client Alerts | May 30, 2018 | Hedge Funds

On March 15, 2018, in a two-to-one decision, the United States Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit overturned a district court decision and vacated the Department of Labor’s ERISA advice fiduciary rule, which had gone into effect in June 2017. For our prior newsletter on the DOL’s advice fiduciary rule, please click here. The…

Client Alerts | March 20, 2018 | Hedge Funds

Section 475(f) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, provides that a trader in securities or commodities can make elections to “mark-to-market” their securities and/or commodities and treat increases or decreases in value as ordinary. A fund must be a trader, and not an investor, in order to be able to make a…

Client Alerts | March 13, 2018 | Hedge Funds

The United States Supreme Court has narrowed the scope of section 546(e), the Bankruptcy Code securities safe harbor for clawbacks, such that it may be available in many cases to only banks, large funds, and other large financial institutions. The case, Merit Management Group LP v. FTI Consulting, Inc., is the first Supreme Court test…

Client Alerts | March 6, 2018 | Hedge Funds