Enhancing your fiduciary compliance through expert, sophisticated knowledge of fiduciary law and practical, in-depth experience with investment operations and procedures

BLK CONSULTING works where business process meets law. We understand that problems and their solutions arise from the overlay of law on investment procedures and operations and that the only comprehensive solution is an integrated solution. Conventional legal or operational approaches used alone tend to be myopic. BLK CONSULTING has the experience and know-how to intermediate between operational staff and outside counsel and to work with in-house counsel to identify and resolve fiduciary issues of corporate governance, ERISA and public pension funds, as well as questions relating to U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) standards and the USA PATRIOT Act.

As mutual fund and other companies have recently learned, the keys to reducing reputational risk are the knowledge of details of operations and law coupled with vigilant monitoring for compliance. Even when companies use specialized outside law firms to help with compliance, those law firms may lack the understanding of your operations and your agents’ operations needed to give well-founded opinions. In-house staff, who understand operations, may not realize how legal issues impact operations. And your board may be left without the information needed to meet its responsibilities.

BLK CONSULTING provides:

• A process-oriented presentation on ‘Following the Money’: how assets move from the investor into a mutual fund, how the assets are invested and how those investments are held and protected globally.
• Practical reviews of ERISA’s fiduciary requirements including actions company fiduciaries should take.
• Customized analysis and problem solving for your fund’s or your company’s operational procedures in the context of fiduciary requirements or other standards.

You benefit by reducing your fiduciary risk exposure.


Key Notes

Speech by SEC Chairman: Remarks to the Council of Institutional Investors
by SEC Chairman William H. Donaldson
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
Washington, D.C.
March 25, 2004
Perhaps the most important issue facing American corporations in the years ahead will be improving their governance structures. …

Speech by SEC Commissioner: Remarks at the SIA Compliance & Legal Division's 35th Annual Seminar
by Commissioner Cynthia A. Glassman
Phoenix, Arizona
March 23, 2004
The Commission's response to the scandals has been a serious ramping up of rulemaking and enforcement action.…

Speech by SEC Chairman: America's Need for Vigilant Mutual Fund Directors
by Chairman William H. Donaldson
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
Mutual Fund Directors Forum
January 7, 2004

Fiduciary Responsibilities Related To Mutual Funds
Statement of Assistant Secretary Ann L. Combs on the Duties of Fiduciaries in Light of Recent Mutual Fund Investigations
February 17, 2004
As significant investors in mutual funds, plan fiduciaries, understandably, are concerned about the impact of reported late trading and market-timing abuses on their pension plans and the steps that should be taken to protect the interests of their plans’ participants and beneficiaries.

Speeches and Testimony
Remarks of Assistant Secretary Ann L. Combs To the Washington Forum of the U.S. Institute
March 8, 2004
I realize this is a critical time for the asset management industry as you make the transition from the “investment” bubble to what may appear to be an impending “regulatory” bubble.

Website links

http://www.dol.gov/ebsa
http://www.sec.gov
http://www.nacdonline.org
http://www.thecorporatelibrary.com
http://www.corpgov.net
http://www.gao.gov
http://iicg.som.yale.edu
http://ecampus.bentley.edu/dept/cbe/index.html
http://www.benefitslink.com