Blog

Our experts frequently write blog posts about the findings of the research we are conducting.

Displaying 21-30 out of 122 results for "Latest Non-Traded REIT Valuations: Not Good�".

FINRA Study: Financial Scams Prevalent

(Sep 2013)

Financial fraud is estimated to cost Americans between $40 and $50 billion annually . Last fall, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) commissioned a study on the financial vulnerability of Americans to classic investor scams. The online study surveyed a sample of more than 2,000 Americans aged 40 and above, chosen to represent the approximate age, ethnicity, and census region distribution reflected by the 2010 census.¹

According to the report,the survey found that approximately...

SEC Halts Florida-Based Prime Bank Investment Scheme

(Sep 2013)

On Monday, the SEC charged a Miami-based group with perpetrating a prime bank investment fraud. The group, which includes Florida attorney Bernard H. Butts, Jr., purported financial services provider Fotios Geivelis, Jr. (a/k/a "Frank Anastasio"), several sales agents, and their allegedly fraudulent business entities (Express Commercial Capital LLC and Worldwide Funding III Limited LLC), are also subject to an emergency asset freeze. View the full complaint.

Prime bank programs promise high...

Illiquid ETFs and SEC Market Maker Incentives

(Sep 2013)

There is now nearly $1.5 trillion invested in exchange-traded products (ETPs) in some 1,400 exchange-traded funds and exchange-traded notes. However, not all of that huge sum is distributed evenly. Some funds, like SPY, have huge assets under management, while many others struggle to top $10 million. Often, issuers will close lightly-traded ETPs (leading to substantial turnover each year), but if they don't, the market price of an ETP can often deviate from the net asset value of its...

Five Broker-Dealers Ordered to Pay over $10 Million in Restitution for Non-Traded REIT Sales

(Sep 2013)

Back in May, Massachusetts securities regulators ordered five independent broker-dealers to pay over $6 million in fines and restitution for improperly selling non-traded REITs. It also settled separately with another broker-dealer, LPL Financial, for an additional $2.5 million. Just yesterday, Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin announced an additional settlement with the same five broker-dealers for an additional $10.75 million in additional restitution for improper sales of...

Regulators Soften on Credit Risk Retention Rule

(Aug 2013)

Yesterday financial regulators proposed a revised rule addressing the retention of credit risk for sponsors of securitizations -- see the proposed rule .¹The thought is that by removing the separation between the origination and securitization of loans, lenders will focus more on the quality of loans rather than the quantity, as they would have to keep some 'skin in the game' when structuring asset-backed securities.

The original March 2011 proposal required securitizers to retain at least...

Limit Up/Limit Down Rules and the NYSE

(Aug 2013)

Nearly a year after the "flash crash" of May 6, 2010, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed a "limit up-limit down" mechanism that would limit the trading prices for listed equity securities to within a range near recent prices -- effectively limiting the realizable volatility of the price movements.¹ The proposal called for price bands around the average price over the preceding five-minute period and would prevent execution of trades outside of these bands. The proposal was...

Update on Inland American Non-Traded REIT

(Aug 2013)

Inland American Real Estate Trust, the largest non-traded real estate investment trust (REIT), has been the subject of intense scrutiny. In many ways, the criticism of Inland American has been representative of the issues endemic to non-traded REITs generally, such as poor dividend coverage, conflicts of interest, excessive payments to affiliates, stale or poorly updated share prices, and other issues we have discussed on this blog and in our research work . While these issues have been...

Falcone the First To Admit Guilt Under New SEC Settlement Policy

(Aug 2013)

On Monday, Philip Falcone and Harbinger Capital Partners, LLC, the hedge fund he founded in 2001, agreed to a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that in addition to an $18 million penalty included an admission of wrongdoing.¹ This is the first high-profile settlement with an admission of guilt since SEC Chairman Mary Jo White said the commission would seek more admissions of guilt rather than continue its longstanding policy of allowing defendants to 'neither admit...

Banks Water Down Loan Terms in Quest for Growth

(Aug 2013)

The Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP) is reporting that banks are watering down terms of new loans under competitive pressure. For example, some banks are increasing the length of amortization from the usual 15 years to the 25 years, others are decreasing required debt-service coverage from 1.25 to as low as 1 times cash flow while still others are waiving cancellation/prepayment fees.

The relaxation of loan standards is not unique to the commercial loan industry. Recently,...

MSRB Proposes Rule on Muni Bond Markups

(Aug 2013)

Our colleagues' recent paper on municipal bond markups, which showed that retail investors were charged nearly $11 billion in markups from 2005-2013, has generated a lot of attention. In June we spent an entire week covering the background, methodology, findings, and implications of that paper, which we think has important implications for the municipal bond investors.

On Tuesday, the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB) proposed a new "fair-pricing" rulethat could help address the...

122 Results

<
1
2
3
4
5
...
13
>