The SEC's proposed rule under the Dodd-Frank Act defining
which family offices will be exempt from regulation as investment
advisers raises many questions requiring close attention.
In October 2010 the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
(SEC) issued a rule proposal under the Investment Advisers Act of
1940 to define the term "family office" for purposes of a
new statutory exemption from the definition of an investment
adviser that will take effect July 21, 2011. The statutory
exemption, established by section 409 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street
Reform and Consumer Protection Act, implements a congressional
judgment that family offices should not be regulated as investment
advisers. It was needed because the Dodd-Frank Act
repeals—also effective July 21, 2011—the
so-called "private adviser exemption" from registration
as an investment adviser under section 203(b)(3) of the Advisers
Act, upon which many family offices have previously relied. This
newsletter
