When firms fail to live up to their own compliance procedures, their ensuing discussions with regulators are often not about guilt or innocence; they are about monetary penalties. Each business should review its self-imposed compliance obligations periodically and be confident that they are satisfied.

For the second time in twelve months, an investment entity suffered a major loss due to a procedural mistake in connection with a challenge to a merger price valuation. (See " Given the amount of money that could be lost, and the two recent cases that serve as warnings, advisers and funds should be sure to nail down the particulars of their process for dealing with merger challenges and other significant proxies, as well investors' rights.

How will state insurance regulators respond to the federalization of insurance regulation – especially as to its effect on insurance companies that are not affiliated with banks?

"By increasing the difficulty and expense for banks to engage in proprietary trading, these regulations might also reduce market liquidity." In other words, through their well-intentioned attempts to make banks "safer," the banking regulators very well may be causing the markets to become far more fragile; i.e., vulnerable to a sudden crash as soon as markets turn in a negative direction because no one will be willing to buy, and consequently banks will become even less…