January 29, 2012
With regards to protecting investors from shady brokers who convince investors to buy inappropriate and/or fraudulent private placements. I suggest that all retail investors be required to use a purchaser representative paid for out of the commissions earned by the selling broker. The purchaser representative should have to attest the suitability of the investment and maintain an E O insurance policy and be a fiduciary to the investor so the investor would have an additional avenue of which to recover in case the broker declares bankruptcy.
Also, the due diligence reports done by such firms as buttonwood and mick associates for sponsors and delivered to broker dealers provide semi-detailed insight into a private placement. The information in these reports is much more revealing than anything in the PPM. Therefore, all due diligence reports should be made available to investors. Why should an supposedly objective review of the PPM be kept from investors? If investors read one of these sponsor paid for 3rd party reports - not only would they not invest but numerous securities violations would be revealed.