Background: The Corporate Transparency Act requires certain businesses and entities to provide beneficial ownership information to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). SEC Registered Investment Advisers: The investment adviser entity and private fund...

The SEC charged the Firm with a number of violations of the Advisers Act Titan is a Fintech Investing App that provides investment advice primarily to retail investors. The SEC charged the Firm with a number of violations of the Advisers Act. Although Titan primarily...

Compliance Best Practices Based on Recent SEC Enforcement Actions Related to Private Fund Advisers  Fund Audits The SEC charged a number of investment advisers that failed to comply with the Custody Rule requirements and/or to timely update their SEC disclosures to...

2023 SEC Exam Priorities Overview   Introduction It’s that time of year again, the time when registered investment advisors (“RIAs”) and broker dealers (“BDs”), jointly (“Firms”) routinely review and update their compliance programs.  A component of this process...

Tides of Digital Asset Regulation In the past 12 months, there has been a flurry of statements, rhetoric, proposed legislation, and legal proceedings relating to digital assets in the US.  Politicians, the CFTC, the SEC, and state regulators have stepped forward with...

Legislation was introduced on August 3 to give the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) authority to regulate digital commodities.

SEC Rule Proposal – Enhanced Disclosures by Certain Investment Advisers and Investment Companies about Environmental, Social, and Governance Investment Practices  Investor interest in environmental, social, and governance (“ESG”) strategies has rapidly increased in...

The past couple months have been a rough ride for crypto investors.  Valuations have come down across the board, and volatility has increased substantially.  While these market conditions have made it difficult for investors, the same conditions are testing the risk...

Aspect Advisors attended the June 8th Evolution of Money: Cryptocurrency Regulation event at the Washington Post in DC. The event occurred one day after the new bi-partisan crypto legislation bill was introduced by Senators Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) and Kirsten Gillibrand...

The SEC recently released a short Risk Alert covering exam findings related to Material Non-Public Information. (“MNPI”) In short, advisers (Both registered and non-registered) are required to adopt policies and procedures to prevent the misuse of MNPI by the adviser...

The SEC just recently announced its 2022 Exam priorities.  We have reviewed them, compared them with 2021, and included some trends we have seen over the past year.   Published annually, (albeit a bit late this year) The SEC Exam Priorities outlines the SEC...

On February 9, 2022, the Securities and Exchange Commission voted 3–1 in proposing new cybersecurity rules for the investment industry. The new Proposed Rules come on the tail end of a growing anxiety from increasing cybersecurity threats on a national and global...

Aspect Advisors and C-F&M 2022 IA/BD Compliance Update We wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone who attended and participated in our 2022 compliance update hosted by Justin Schleifer, Co-Founder, President (Aspect Advisors), and Bart Mallon,...

The SEC has turned its attention to more carefully regulating advisers to private funds, as made clear by new rule proposals released last week. While the proposals are currently in the comment period, it seems likely that most, if not all, of the provisions of the...

BlockFi agreed to pay a $50 million penalty to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and an additional $50 million in fines to 32 states to settle similar charges. The fine is related to BlockFi Interest Accounts (BIAs) that lets clients accrue interest on...