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Under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and related rules, absent an exemption, most private fund managers are required to register with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) or, in some cases, state securities authorities. Under the Advisers Act, a person acts as an investment adviser if the person is providing advice “as to the value of securities or as to the advisability of investing in, purchasing or selling securities” for compensation to others. Accordingly, a manager of a fund owning only real estate and not owning any “securities” is not required to register as an investment adviser. However, even managers who are not required to register as investment advisers under the Advisers Act should consider the implementation of policies and procedures similar to those required of registered investment advisers as a best practice.

Continue reading the full article, published by the Pension Real Estate Association.

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Photo of Richard M. Cutshall Richard M. Cutshall

Richard M. Cutshall is Co-Chair of the firm’s Investment Management Group. Rich has experience representing clients in a variety of investment management, corporate, and general securities matters, including the representation of mutual funds and other funds registered under the Investment Company Act of…

Richard M. Cutshall is Co-Chair of the firm’s Investment Management Group. Rich has experience representing clients in a variety of investment management, corporate, and general securities matters, including the representation of mutual funds and other funds registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940, fund independent directors, unregistered investment companies, federally registered and state registered investment advisers, broker-dealers, and an array of public and private companies. He represents clients in all aspects of investment company practice, including organizing and forming new funds, registering investment companies with the SEC, the acquisition and merger of funds, and advising clients on the day-to-day aspects of corporate governance, board and adviser fiduciary responsibility, and SEC compliance.

Photo of Sanford C. Presant Sanford C. Presant

Sanford C. Presant, Co-Chair of the firm’s Global Real Estate Fund Practice, focuses his practice on providing fund and joint venture best practice business and tax structuring advice to sponsors of the leading real estate private equity funds, qualified opportunity zone (QOZ) funds,

Sanford C. Presant, Co-Chair of the firm’s Global Real Estate Fund Practice, focuses his practice on providing fund and joint venture best practice business and tax structuring advice to sponsors of the leading real estate private equity funds, qualified opportunity zone (QOZ) funds, REITs, and their local partners and investors in the U.S. and internationally.

Sandy has more than 30 years of experience as a tax and business lawyer for major funds and real estate companies. He has structured and negotiated the tax and business aspects for leading industry QOZ funds, over 100 real estate funds (including their internal general partner structuring and executive compensation) in the U.S., Europe, Latin America and Asia, and more than 500 joint ventures (partnerships and LLCs), including QOZ subsidiary JVs (QOZBs), as both a corporate and tax attorney. Sandy was the National Co Chair – Real Estate Fund Services at Ernst & Young from 2000 – 2005 and was Chair of DLA Piper’s Real Estate Fund Practice. Sandy is a prior Chair,  American Bar Association Partnership Tax Committee, and is a member of the NAREIT Government Relations Committee and the Tax Policy Advisory Committee (TPAC) of the Real Estate Roundtable.

Sandy served as National Chairman of the American Bar Association’s Committee on Partnership Taxation, is a member of the ABA Task Force on Debt Restructurings and Bankruptcy, and chaired the ABA Task Forces on Publicly Traded Partnerships and Partnership Tax Allocation Rulings. He is on the Tax Policy Steering Committee of the State Bar of California, on the advisory board for California CEB’s Advanced Tax Planning for Real Estate Transactions, on the Board of Advisors of the Loyola Law School Tax LL.M. Program, and is a member of the Advisory Board for CCH’s Journal of Passthrough Entities. He has been a regular guest commentator on the PBS program The Nightly Business Report and was a presenter at the 1993 California Economic Summit. For 15 years, Sandy was an adjunct professor at New York University’s Real Estate Institute. He speaks annually at a number of the principal tax conferences throughout the country.

Sandy was a program director of the 2003 NAREIT Law and Accounting Conference. He currently is a Co-Chair (and founder) of PLI’s Annual Real Estate Tax Forum in New York. He is the co-author of the two-volume treatise Tax Aspects of Real Estate Investments. In 2007, he was named a California Super Lawyer, as the result of a joint research project by Law & Politics and Los Angeles magazines. He is listed in The Best Lawyers in America.

Sandy has substantial experience in structuring funds and joint ventures to minimize UBTI, including the use of blocker structures reducing the withholding and tax for cross border investors and tax-exempts, public and private REITs, hotel net lease structures that minimize leakage, and fractions rule compliant structures.

Photo of Arthur Don Arthur Don

Arthur Don is the Co-Chair of the Investment Management Group. He has more than 40 years of experience representing mutual funds, public investment companies, fund independent directors, investment advisers, private investment funds, private equity funds, real estate funds, broker-dealers and public companies in

Arthur Don is the Co-Chair of the Investment Management Group. He has more than 40 years of experience representing mutual funds, public investment companies, fund independent directors, investment advisers, private investment funds, private equity funds, real estate funds, broker-dealers and public companies in a variety of sophisticated securities transactions. His experience includes various aspects of investment company practice, from organizing new funds through acquisitions and mergers of funds. Arthur has represented issuers and underwriters in numerous public offerings. He also frequently advises independent directors on fiduciary duties, and advises clients on compliance policy issues.

Photo of Daria Boxer Daria Boxer

Daria K. Boxer focuses her practice on corporate and commercial finance transactions, real estate fund formation and finance, as well as private offerings of debt and equity securities. She regularly counsels clients on corporate finance, securities law and corporate governance issues and general…

Daria K. Boxer focuses her practice on corporate and commercial finance transactions, real estate fund formation and finance, as well as private offerings of debt and equity securities. She regularly counsels clients on corporate finance, securities law and corporate governance issues and general corporate matters. Daria represents funds, fund sponsors, financial institutions and other lenders in connection with a broad range of financing transactions, including subscription and capital call facilities, private placements, cashflow financings, and project finance transactions. She also advises fund clients in connection with ongoing operations, financing issues, corporate governance and investor relations.

As counsel to real estate funds, Daria advises fund sponsors in connection with structuring, formation and negotiation of the terms of investment vehicles, preparation of offering and subscription documents and legal strategies with respect to capital raising and ongoing investor relationships. She has represented a number of multi-family, industrial, hotel and other commercial real estate fund sponsors in a variety of internal and external matters, including general partner executive compensation and principal agreements, structuring and formation of single-asset and discretionary blind funds, and programmatic joint ventures to accommodate institutional, high-net worth, foreign and tax-exempt UBTI sensitive investors, pension funds, including with the use of blocker and REIT structures to optimize investors’ tax treatment.