Self-directed IRAs – Law and Lore

Richard Matta | Groom Law Group

Richard Matta advises clients with respect to the structuring and marketing of investment products and financial services to tax-qualified retirement plans, voluntary employees beneficiary association (VEBA) plans, governmental plans, IRAs, and other tax-exempt investors.

On-Demand: November 29, 2023

$195.00 1.5 hour CLE

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Program Summary

“Self-directed” is a term of art used in the Individual Retirement Account industry to refer to any IRA that invests in “alternative” assets, meaning just about anything other than traditional exchange-traded securities, bank products, or annuities. With a few notable exceptions, this marketplace has been largely ignored by regulators; as a result, many of the legal requirements are ambiguous, unanswered, or even sometimes contradictory based on different and often uncoordinated (or even competing) regulatory regimes. The goal of this program is to identify some of these key legal considerations, to present “possible” answers (and best practice) where appropriate, and to note some of the practical considerations and challenges presented by particular types of alternative investments.

This course is co-sponsored with myLawCLE.

Key topics to be discussed:

Self-directed IRAs/products defined
Code section 408/408A considerations and “disguised contributions”
Prohibited transaction considerations
Unrelated business income tax (UBIT) considerations
Other legal regimes and practical considerations

Date / Time: January 15, 2024

Closed-captioning available

Speakers

Richard Matta | Groom Law Group\

Rick’s financial products experience includes advising on mutual funds, hedge and private equity funds, bank collective trusts, real estate, derivatives, and other alternative investments. He also advises on investment advisory and “managed account” programs, brokerage and wrap products, recordkeeping platforms, outsourced CIO services, independent fiduciary services, securities lending, bank sweeps, trust and custody services, and service provider “alliance” agreements.

His experience extends to helping plan fiduciaries with governance/compliance audits and development of compliance programs and investment policies. In addition to advising on ERISA fiduciary and prohibited transaction matters, he advises plan service providers on securities law issues involving exemptions from broker-dealer registration, Investment Advisers Act compliance, exemptions from the Investment Company Act, and private offering rules. Representative clients include Fortune 500 and governmental plan sponsors; independent VEBAs; large banks, broker-dealers and mutual fund complexes as well as trust companies and private fund managers.

He also regularly counsels a number of other law firms and their clients in connection with complex and specialized ERISA, IRA, and governmental plan issues. Rick has worked with clients in obtaining scores of Department of Labor prohibited transaction exemptions and advisory opinions, as well as SEC and FINRA guidance and IRS rulings. He advises large defined benefit plan sponsors and fiduciaries on issues relating to the acquisition and holding of employer securities and de-risking transactions such as in-kind contributions of assets and participant cash-outs.

Rick co-chairs Groom’s IRA Practice Group where he advises financial institutions on IRA and HSA products—custody, brokerage, advisory, and other services—and prohibited transaction issues. He also advises family offices, wealth managers and ultra-high net worth individuals with respect to large and complex IRA investment transactions.