I am pleased to announce that our paper, "The Forced Registration of Hedge Funds in the United States" will be published in the October, 2019 issue of Economic Affairs next month! Eddie Kramer is my co-author on this project. We first submitted this paper five years ago to the journal and have worked on and off improving the paper since that time. It was our final paper for a class on the Law of Capital Markets at California Lutheran University for the MBA in Personal Financial Planning program. This is my first peer-reviewed publication as well as my first lead-author publication.
The paper argues that hedge fund regulation undermines the very purpose that hedge funds were meant to serve--to provide a means for the investor to hedge against market volatility and other risks. Both state and federal regulations already prohibit the defrauding of investors. Thus, regulating hedge funds and their managers is redundant, superfluous, and, from a policy perspective, incorrect. Instead, we advocate for greater scrutiny on those who advocate, whether by discretion or custody, over client funds. This list includes various parties such as financial advisors and pension administrators, many of whom are already regulated by various securities regulation such as the 1933 Securities Act, the 1934 Exchange Act, the 1940 Investment Company & Advisor Acts, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, and the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010. We believe that, in the investment chain, only one individual need owe the client a fiduciary duty and that individual (not the product or the product's money manager) should face regulation.
Many thanks to Eddie for all the hard work he put in to make this possible as well as all my family, friends, loved ones, and professors, and clients, including all those who have passed on, who have and continue to be a positive influence in my academic career and in my life generally.
Economic Affairs is a UK-based journal, published by Wiley, and is ranked "C"-level by the Australian Business Deans Council.