On February 15, 2012, the SEC announced the final adoption of amendments to Rule 205-3 of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 (“Advisers Act”). The amendment results from the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act’s change to section 205 of the Advisers Act, which requires the SEC to make inflationary adjustments to any dollar amount thresholds used to exempt investors from the provision’s prohibition on registered investment advisers collection of performance based fees.

On February 6^th the California Department of Corporations announced a 45-day extension of the comment period for its proposed rule aligning California’s exemption for private fund advisers to the federal exemption. Interested parties now have until 5 p.m. March 26, 2012 to provide commentary on the proposed rulemaking.

Many opine the financial crisis was hastened by the financial industry’s use of byzantine and risky securities. FINRA recently released more specific guidance concerning supervision by broker dealers over the sale of complex products: Regulatory Notice 12-03, Complex Products: Heightened Supervision of Complex Products.