Podcast: Navigating 2025: Essential Insights for Investment Advisers to Private Funds

As investment advisers and private funds navigate 2025, staying ahead of regulatory shifts and tax updates is critical. In this episode of Weaver: Beyond the Numbers, Weaver’s Michael Barakat, along with Nixon Peabody’s Matthew Bobrow and Weaver’s Brad Esporrin, discuss the evolving compliance landscape.

Key Points:

• The Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) is still under review but will impact private funds.
• The SEC is focused on fees, conflicts of interest and valuation policies.
• Significant tax provisions are expiring, and advisers should plan for potential changes.

While uncertainty looms over the enforceability of the CTA due to possible legal challenges, leading voices suggest its compliance necessities will influence federal and state-level policy too. Small businesses and investment firms should standby with their filings for the federal CTA, and in the event of its invalidation, the same filings can be used for state-level compliance.

“SEC scrutiny, tax changes and AML rules are reshaping the regulatory landscape. Fund managers must take a proactive approach to compliance in 2025,” said Michael. The SEC’s attention to items like asset valuations, communication channels and anti-money laundering (AML) regulations makes it imperative for firms to audit their practices and align them with the directives.

Significant changes to existing tax legislation under the Trump administration, such as the increase in tax rates and changes to deductions, are expected in 2025. Corporates and private funds are awaiting clarity on measures they need to adapt over issues such as tariff imposition, state tax deductions and interest deductions. These insights echo the need for due diligence, strategic tactics and adaptability to navigate the regulatory and tax landscape in 2025.

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©2025

CTA UPDATE, 2/13/2025:  The guidance in the video is still largely accurate. However, over the past few days, several new CTA-related events have occurred. The United States Supreme Court decided to reject a nationwide injunction against CTA enforceability, but did not comment on a separate nationwide injunction that was put in place a few days prior. This left the CTA unenforceable and still in limbo. A few days later, the federal government asked the federal court to lift the still-in-place injunction. The government’s motion said that if the request for an injunction is stayed, FinCEN will delay CTA reporting deadlines for 30 days while it attempts to limit the scope of the CTA to prioritize reporting by higher risk categories of entities. If the court agrees to the stay, we will need to start considering CTA filings again as the CTA would be enforceable again within a certain period – but the question of who must report will be up in the air. The government is saying they will scale it back, but it is not clear how.