ELLICOTT CITY, Md., Feb. 11, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Investment Program Association (IPA), a trade association for non-listed direct investment vehicles, and AI Insight, the financial industry's most trusted source for alternative investment product information and training, today announced that a new and uniquely powerful compliance tool, the AI Insight Daily Blue Sky Report, will be available to IPA members.
The Daily Blue Sky Reports are designed to create a single compliance platform addressing the needs of broker-dealers offering direct investments in multiple markets and jurisdictions. The reports cover the 50 states and include state-specific blue sky information* for more than 40 public non-traded REITs and BDCs active in the AI Insight system.
The Daily Blue Sky Report contains state-specific requirements, including:
- Net worth and income suitability requirements, including a special focus on states with heightened requirements;
- Concentration limitations;
- Limitations on participation in distribution reinvestment plan that reinvest distributions into subsequent affiliated programs;
- Limitations on participation in automatic purchase plans.
Each of these areas can have different requirements depending on the state in which the direct investment is offered. The Daily Blue Sky Report aims to create the highest-possible level of transparency across a broker-dealer so the firms' compliance officers and advisors have a full picture of their clients' investments.
"The IPA is thrilled to be offering the Daily Blue Sky Report to IPA member firms to help them navigate the many complexities of state-by-state regulation," said Kevin M. Hogan, President and CEO of the Investment Program Association. "We're confident that this will ease broker-dealer compliance for firms of all sizes, and believe it has the possibility of revolutionizing compliance in our highly regulated industry."
"AI Insight is pleased to be powering the IPA's Daily Blue Sky Data report. Since 2007, AI Insight has been providing this information to our subscriber base as a part of our core services, and we feel it's vitally important to help increase the efficiencies throughout the industry regarding current program financial suitability requirements," said Sherri Cooke, AI Insight's President and CEO.
"The Net Worth and Suitability Standards filter within the comparative reports section is an excellent source for reps to qualify their clients," stated Ken Johnson, DDO Officer at IMS Securities. "It's a one stop view of approved products and the specific state standards."
* The states in which the program is effective is based upon information provided by the sponsor of each program. AI Insight has an automated process to proactively request updated information on an ongoing basis to maintain an accurate database. The state-specific requirements will not be shown on the report until AI Insight has received notification of the program being cleared in the respective state.
Additional report filters are available through www.aiinsight.com. To learn more about AI Insight's training and education on Alternative Investments contact newsubscriptions@aiinsight.com.
About AI Insight
AI Insight was formed in 2005 with the primary goal of providing the Alternative Investment industry insight and prospectus-based program education to broker dealers and their financial advisors through a secure and easy-to-navigate web-based platform. Through AI Insight, broker dealers and product sponsors are assured of an efficient process for introducing and monitoring new offerings within the Alternative Investment arena — all founded through regulatory-based directives. AI Insight's current database includes 95+ broker dealers housing anywhere from 15 to 6,000 advisors and 75+ subscribing Alternative Investment product sponsors.
The Investment Program Association (IPA) was formed in 1985 to provide effective national leadership for the direct investment industry. The IPA supports individual investor access to a variety of asset classes not correlated to the traded markets and historically available only to institutional investors. These investments include public non-listed REITs (NLREITs) and Business Development Companies (BDCs), Energy and Equipment Leasing Programs, and private equity offerings. For the last 28 years, the IPA has successfully championed the growth of such products, which have increased in popularity with financial professionals and investors alike. Direct investments are held in the accounts of more than 2 million individual investors, and the IPA's member companies operate or have properties in all 50 states. The mission of the IPA is advocating direct investments through education. Access the wealth of IPA educational materials here, or visit the IPA online for more information about becoming a member.
To stay up-to-date with IPA news, follow @IPADirectInvest on Twitter.