On June 23rd, the staff of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations issued a new risk alert entitled “Observations from Examinations of Investment Advisers Managing Private Funds.” As discussed in the client alert below, the report highlights many practices which have been the subject of SEC enforcement actions with private fund advisers over the past several years, and serves as a valuable reminder of some basic steps advisers to private equity and/or hedge funds can take to reduce and hopefully avoid regulatory scrutiny in these areas.