更倾向于设立有限责任公司, 主要是因为这是最简单 的一种形式 。 有限责任公司是一种灵活的组建形式, 但 是灵活性也会有相应代价 。 法律并未对有限责任公司 的公司治理问题的处理方式做出明确规定, 所以州法 院一般依据有限责任公司经营协议( 亦称为有限责任 公司协议) 进 行 管 理 。
所以, 经营协议文书必须由有限责任公司成员仔细起 草 、 审查和谈判, 而不是填写从网上获得的表格 。 某些 国 家 的 公 民, 如 加 拿 大, 作 为 美 国 有 限 责 任 公 司 的 成 员, 可 能 会 遭 受 不 公 平 的 税 收 后 果 。 因 此, 在 做 出 决 策 之前, 应 咨询 税 务 专业 人 士 。
投资本身的结构安排使得基金结构进一步复杂化 。 在 某些情况下, 由于投资具有较高的投机性, 为吸引风险 容忍度较低的投资者, 基金发起人可以安排一位担保 人为投资提供担保 。 虽然没有任何事情是绝对“ 受到 担保的”, 拥有一位资金充足的担保人会增强投资者信 心 。
担保人可以提供某一特定类型的担保, 或允许有限合 伙企业或其全资特殊目的子公司在其担保人资产上设 立留置权益 。 在这类情况中, 在破产情况下, 了解和披 露担保或留置权益的优先权对于投资者和管理层都非 常重要 。
在某些情况下, 还可以设立投资信托, 提供税收优惠 。 可以使用“ 规定受益人不得自由处理的信托” 来保护信 托的受益人, 因为债权人一般无法触及信托资金 。 然 而, 设立信托可能会限制基金的杠杆活动, 如以资产提 供担保的借款 。
为初创基金提供咨询过程中的注意事项:
我们无法详尽列明设立私募基金过程中的法律问题 。 客户必须与律师和税务专业人士密切合作, 以取得最 佳结果 。 另一方面, 基金的生命周期可能相当简单: 募 集资金, 获得收益( 希望如此) 和撤资 。
可能我们组织思路的最好方式就是考虑这三个步骤 。 例如, 我们可以列举出需要按以下方式解决的问题: 发 售: 投资基本条款 、 市场营销合规 、 使用经纪人 / 交易 商 / 外国中间人 、 反洗钱和投资者资格认定; 投资: 尽职 调查 、 管理权利 / 义务 、 管理费 、 利润 / 损失分配 、 记录保 管和使用权管理; 退出: 退出时间表和战略 、 优先性 、 附带权益 、 非现金分配, 是否有再投资方案 。
在审查上述阶段时, 我们可以发现文件中需要解决的 问题, 和 / 或需要与客户讨论的问题 。 我们通常需要起 草私募配售备忘录(“ PPM”), 以总结投资条款和披露 风险 。 有时私募配售备忘录是法律规定的( 例如, 条例 D 第 502( b)( 2) 条) 。 另外, 进行完整必要的披露也是一个 好主意 。 说实话, 除律师外, 没有人会乐意阅读冗长 、 晦 涩的私募配售备忘录 。 私募配售备忘录会不时地限制 not a clearly defined term. You do not need a“ fund manager” that wears pocket square to start a fund. In some situations, even though the person starting the fund is running the day-to-day operations, there are only a limited amount of investors and they demand active control over all the investments. This is a good example where the fund probably should not be organized as a limited partnership.
Some clients might prefer setting up an LLC mostly because it seems to be the simplest. LLC is a flexible form of incorporation, but the flexibility also comes at a price. The laws are not exactly clear about how certain corporate governance issues need to be resolved for LLCs so state courts generally rely on the LLC’ s operating agreement( also known as limited liability company agreement). Therefore, the operating agreement is an instrument that must be carefully drafted, reviewed and negotiated by the LLC’ s members, as opposed to filling out a form obtained online. Nationals of certain countries, such as Canada, may suffer inequitable tax consequences as members of a U. S. LLC. Tax professionals should thus be consulted before decision is made.
The structure of the fund is further complicated by how the investment itself is structured. Sometimes, because the investment is highly speculative, to attract investors with lesser risk tolerance, fund sponsors may structure a guarantor to back the investment. While nothing is absolutely“ guaranteed,” having a guarantor with ample assets boosts investors’ confidence. The guarantor may provide a certain type of guaranty or allow the limited partnership or its wholly owned special purpose entity to create certain lien interest on the guarantor’ s assets. In this type of situations, understanding and disclosing the guaranty or lien interest’ s priority in the event of bankruptcy would be crucial to both the investors and management.
Sometimes, investment trusts can also be set up to provide for tax benefits. Spendthrift trust may be used to protect the trust’ s beneficiaries because creditors generally cannot reach the funds in the trust. However, setting up a trust may limit the fund’ s leverage activities such as assetbacked borrowing.
CONSIDERATIONS IN ADVISING A STARTUP FUND
The legal issues in starting a private fund cannot be exhaustively enumerated. Clients must work closely with attorneys and tax professionals in order to achieve the best results. On the other hand, the life cycle of a fund can be rather simple: collect money, make money( hopefully) and get out. Perhaps the best way to organize our thoughts is to think about the three steps. For example, we can list out the issues that need to be addressed in the following manner: Offering: basic terms of the investment, marketing compliance, using broker / dealer / foreign finder, anti-money laundering and investor accreditation; Invest: due diligence, management rights / obligations, management fees profit / loss allocation, record keeping and access management; Exit: exit timeline and strategy, priority, carried interest, noncash distribution, if any reinvestment options.
45 THE CHINA INVESTOR