On September 21, 2012, Governor Brown signed Senate Bill 323 (Vargas) (the “Bill”) into law. Specifically, Section 20 of the Bill adds the California Revised Uniform Limited Liability Company Act (“RULLCA”) to the Corporations Code to govern the formation and operation of limited liability companies (“LLCs”). The RULLCA will become operative on January 1, 2014 and replaces the existing Beverly-Killea Limited Liability Company Act.[1]

Last month, the California Court of Appeal in San Francisco issued an opinion in Lickiss v. Financial Industry Regulatory Authority explicitly permitting courts across the state to use an equitable balancing test in order to determine whether a broker’s CRD record can be expunged. The broker in the case, Edwin Lickiss, defeated FINRA’s attempts to have his expungement case thrown out of court after 18 months of litigation. Lickiss is seeking to expunge 17 arbitration matters stemming from a REIT investment he recommended to clients from 1987 to 1991 that ultimately went south, and one FINRA rule violation that was resolved in 1997.

Yesterday the Securities and Exchange Commission instituted administrative proceedings against nationally syndicated radio personality and author Raymond J. Lucia. Lucia is the owner of Raymond J. Lucia Companies, Inc., a former federally registered investment adviser doing business as RJL Wealth Management, and RJL Enterprises, Inc., an entertainment company through which Lucia produces the syndicated radio show, The Ray Lucia Show. The order charges Lucia with spreading misleading information about his “Buckets of Money” strategy at a series of investment seminars for potential clients.