Challenges For Chief Compliance Officers Under Amended Advisers Act Custody Rule

On December 16, 2009, the Securities and Exchange Commission adopted amendments to the custody rule under the Investment Advisers Act of 1040.  Designed in large part to address regulatory issues exposed during the Bernard Madoff scandal, the new custody requirements will significantly impact many registered advisers.  Chief compliance officers will be challenged to assess how their firms’ activities and arrangements will be governed by the new requirements or, alternatively, whether to change the way the adviser does business.  This webcast, cosponsored by the National Society of Compliance Professionals and West LegalEdcenter, will cover the following areas:

• How broad is the new concept of “custody?”
• What are some of the ways an adviser that is part of a large financial complex may inadvertently be deemed to have custody?
• What are the possible ways to avoid custody?
• What types of policies and procedures should a CCO consider to help assure compliance with the new requirements?
• What issues and questions are advisers raising about the amended rule now that it has been adopted?

The panel for this program includes:

Clifford J. Alexander is a Partner in the Washington, DC office of K & L Gates LLP, with emphasis on representation of investment companies, broker-dealers, investment advisers and bank trust departments.  Mr. Alexander regularly advises clients on their policies and procedures, compliance programs and responses in SEC examinations and investigations.  He has conducted regulatory examinations and independent investigations for many advisers, broker-dealers, investment companies and transfer agents.  Previously, he served as counsel to the Task Force on Banking Boards and Commissions of the President's Private Sector Survey on Cost Controls (Grace Commission), as assistant counsel to the Securities Subcommittee of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, and as an analyst and attorney with the SEC in the division that regulates investment companies and investment advisers.  He also has served as outside counsel and a director of the NSCP.

Pamela K. Ziermann, CSCP.  Ms. Ziermann is Senior Vice President, Compliance and Human Resources and has been with Dougherty Financial Group LLC for over 17 years. Under the Dougherty Financial Group umbrella Ms. Ziermann is responsible for Compliance and Human Resources for one broker-dealer (Dougherty & Company LLC) and four investment advisers (Segall Bryant & Hamill, The Clifton Group, Somerset Asset Management LLC and Somerset Advisers LLC).  Before joining Dougherty Financial she was the Trust and Investment Compliance Officer for Marquette Banks. Prior to her compliance career she was an auditor with Marquette Banks and Arthur Andersen. She has served on various industry committees. These include National Society of Compliance Professionals committees and FINRA’s Small Firm Advisory Board, New Account Form Task Force, Small Firm Rules Impact Task Force and District Business Conduct Committee and Nominating Committee.  She currently serves on the Board of Directors for the National Society of Compliance Professionals, the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board Professional Qualifications Advisory Committee and FINRA’s Registration and Licensing Council and District 4 Nominating Committee.

Lee D. Augsburger is senior vice president and chief ethics and compliance officer in the Law, Compliance and Business Ethics unit of Prudential Financial, Inc., responsible for overseeing the company’s global compliance organization of more than 375 staff worldwide and the company’s global business ethics efforts. Augsburger also manages the company’s employee dispute resolution program, “Roads to Resolution®.” Augsburger joined Prudential’s law department in 1997 later becoming the chief legal officer for the annuities business. In 2000 he moved to the compliance department and was appointed global chief compliance officer in 2007 and Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer in 2009. He also has served as vice president, compliance, for the company’s Investment Division, where he was responsible for managing compliance programs for the retirement services, institutional brokerage, asset management businesses and mutual funds. Prior to joining Prudential, Augsburger was a director in PriceWaterhouse’s Regulatory Consulting Practice, worked with Van Kampen Merrit, served several years with Bell, Boyd & Lloyd law firm and later joined Smith Barney where he was deputy general counsel for its mutual fund organization. Augsburger has an undergraduate degree in communications from Wheaton College and a JD from ITT/Chicago Kent College of Law. He is a member of the bar of Illinois and various industry organizations, including the National Society of Compliance Professionals and the Ethics and Compliance Officer Association. Augsburger serves on the Board of Trustees of Star of Hope Ministries, an inner-city mission organization in Paterson, NJ. He also serves on the Board of Advisors for the Institute for Ethical Leadership at Rutgers University.

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