October 1, 2016
After presidential candidate Donald Trump announced the selection of Indiana Governor Mike Pence as his running mate, The New York Times noted that Mr. Pence’s addition to the ticket could make it harder for Mr. Trump to raise money from the business community because of an “obscure” Securities and Exchange Commission provision meant to prevent pay-to-play efforts for public pension plans.
Suzanne Dugan, who heads Cohen Milstein’s Ethics & Fiduciary Practice, provides an update on the SEC “pay to play” rule in the current issue of PERSist, a quarterly publication of the National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems. Dugan writes that the rule is anything but “obscure” to the public pension fund administrators and trustees who make up the organization’s membership. It prohibits an investment adviser from receiving compensation for advisory services to a government entity for two years after the adviser or its covered associates makes a political contribution to a public official or candidate in a position to influence the award of advisory business.