If the SEC is redirecting some of its focus back on the private fund space, consider that it might not be immediately apparent. The SEC can take some obvious steps, like enforcement actions and

The march of progress can change some things forever. But in the financial services field, some things are just cyclical. In that context, the SEC staff recently put out a “risk alert” targeting the

Here are two final factors that contributed to the decline of legal and compliance as the top operational priority in the private fund space. 5. Competing Issues. Other operational issues arose to compete with

The decline of legal and compliance as the top operational priority over the past decade was due to many factors. Here are two more. 3. Apprehension over SEC examinations subsided. Substantially. There’s nothing like

The private fund industry didn’t collectively wake up one morning and say “Hey, legal and compliance isn’t as important anymore.” Rather, there were a number of factors that went into the declining priority over

By the mid-2000s, the private fund industry was rocking. But as the decade came to a close, the industry experienced a number of hugely impactful events. Collectively, these events justified making legal and compliance

The SEC finally pulled the registration trigger in 2004. In effect, the SEC changed its rules so that private funds were no longer counted as a single client. Instead, firms had to look-through all

Up until the mid-2000s, private fund firms enjoyed an exemption from SEC registration. As long as a firm managed 14 or fewer funds and didn’t publicly advertise, it was off the SEC’s radar. Some

A decade ago, legal and compliance issues were the top operational-side priority for most private fund firms. Wide-ranging interviews with leading industry participants, surveys of COOs and other anecdotal evidence, however, suggests that may