Levitt Capital Management and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
Occasionally we are asked if LCM is registered with the S.E.C. as we work with U.S. citizens. The answer is, no we are not. The S.E.C. is a regulatory agency which monitors U.S. investment advisors and investment products for residents of the United States. The client base of our LCM are European fiscal residents, not American fiscal residents. To that effect, LCM as a Foreign Private Advisor is allowed an exemption (Rule 202(a)(30) with the S.E.C. to work with U.S. residents in transitioning their move to Europe. In effect, we can manage up to fifteen accounts and/or up to $25 million dollars.
Registration with the S.E.C. is not difficult or expensive. We are mostly in compliance with S.E.C. requirement, although our principal regulator is l’Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), the French regulatory agency, as our business is located in France. We have the required designations and examinations to comply with the U.S. regulations and in certain cases, such as cyber-security, we have chosen to follow the much stricter regulations required in the U.S. So, why not register? The primary reason we do not register in the United States is that we do not manage assets for U.S. persons, except for during the period of their transition to European residency. S.E.C. registration requires a firm to manage at least US$100 million. That means, we would have to manage US$100 million of assets permanently in the United States for U.S. residents. This of course, in not the focus of LCM.