Writings by Dan Brecher

New SEC Guidance Legitimizes Robo-Advisers Investors increasingly seek to obtain investment advice online. Some even rely on computers to determine where to invest their money. The new online services allow individual investors to create and manage their investment accounts through a web portal or mobile application, sometimes with little or no interaction with a human […]

Investment Advisers’ Top Five Compliance Fails As investment advisers conduct their annual review, they can learn a lot from their peers. The Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) recently issued a Risk Alert detailing the five compliance topics most frequently identified in deficiency letters that were sent to registered investment […]

How Could the HALOS Act Benefit Start-ups? The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed the Helping Angels Lead Our Startups (HALOS) Act. The goal of the legislation is to remove regulatory roadblocks that may prevent start-ups from securing funds from angel investors by clarifying what types of communications constitute a general solicitation and subsequently trigger the verification […]

How Crowdfunding could be fixed under the JOBS Act Crowdfunding was conceived as a way to help spur job growth by making it easier for small businesses and startups to raise money from public investors. Enacted by Congress in 2012, it wasn’t until 2016 that the SEC adopted the rules and regulations for crowdfunding under […]

Should You Conduct a Business Checkup for 2017? As we enter 2017, how healthy is your business? If you aren’t sure that your company is running at peak performance, it’s time for an annual business checkup.Just like the human body, businesses can suffer if they are not regularly maintained. Without proper preventive care, a relatively […]

FINRA recently expelled crowdfunding portal uFundingPortal (UFP) The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) recently expelled crowdfunding platform uFundingPortal (UFP) LLC. It marks the first FINRA settlement over alleged violations of the crowdfunding rules enacted pursuant to the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (JOBS Act). Regulations for Crowdfunding Portals Under the JOBS Act, funding portals relying on the […]

Should Your Business Consider a Direct Public Offering? We’ve previously discussed on our Firm Insights what you should consider before going public via initial public offering (IPO), but what about a direct public offering (DPO)? For many small businesses, the idea of eventually taking a company public is a pipe dream. But this is a misconception because while […]

What You Should Consider Before Investing in a Start-up While the economy is steadily improving, 75 percent of all start-ups will fail, often in the first year. Before jumping “all in” and investing in a start-up, investors must be sure to carefully evaluate the business opportunity to determine whether the potential return on investment (ROI) […]

What if your Contract Partner Goes Under? While the economies of New York and New Jersey have rebounded since the 2008 recession, small businesses still face challenges. Unfortunately, when a company with which you do business closes, it may leave you seeking options so that you are not a victim of that company’s failure.So what […]

Filing Requirements When Selling Company Stock In many cases, start-ups and other small businesses are selling company stock without registering with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) or state regulatory authority. However, the key question is whether the offering qualifies for one of several exemptions from registration under the federal Securities Act of 1933 or state […]

Is this the end of agreement to agree in New York? A recent New York court decision highlights that letters of intent can often lead to messy breach of contract lawsuits – especially when it comes to the concept of agreement to agree. As the appeals court highlighted in New York Military Academy v. NewOpen Group, […]

What You Need to Know about the SEC’s New Rules for Administrative Proceedings The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently adopted several amendments to its rules of practice governing administrative proceedings. According to the agency, the rule changes are “intended to update the rules and introduce additional flexibility into administrative proceedings.” The Dodd-Frank Act gave […]