Declaring Side Hustle Investments to Compliance
Do people actually disclose all their real estate holdings to their company? I work in acquisitions for a large investment management firm (>$10B AUM) and we have a compliance policy in which we have to declare all public and private investments. For SEC purposes we have to disclose all public holdings and sell off those that conflict with our firm’s public trading arm, which I’ve done no problem. For private investments they tell us to disclose these because per our Compliance officer, “we don’t want our LPs to question if employees are doing side deals that weren’t presented to them first” and “we want to show our LPs that our team is fully dedicated to our firm and not doing anything that takes their time away from that”.
I’m in the process of becoming a GP on a larger multifamily property. It’s in one of the firms target markets and similar size to what they would buy. BUT it’s a Class C Opportunistic-risk level asset and the firm only buys Core+ to light Value Add buildings. So I feel that the deal is not really competing with my firm’s buy box. I found it with some partners unrelated to any work relationships or company resources.
If it’s important, my GP share will be <10% and I will not be signing on the loan. Therefore I don’t think my name will be on any loan documents or other public documents. I plan on continue building a portfolio on the side while I have my day job and this is the first big deal. So this conundrum will continue for (hopefully) future deals.
Should I disclose the deal to my firm and risk them saying that I can’t invest? Or should I not tell them and hope they never find out. If they find out it might be grounds for firing me. Is it better to ask for forgiveness IF I get caught vs asking for permission to invest in the deal. I’m also kind of new to the firm and I enjoy working here, so I don’t want to get fired.
Thanks in advance for any responses.
You better be getting paid a premium... I doubt your senior leadership is following in-line.
Why do you mean “getting paid a premium”? Like on the deal or in my day job? The compliance officer was like “we know all the senior guys invest in their own deals on the side, but we just want to document it” so I feel like it’s more of a formality but then again I can’t trust compliance or HR.
If it wasn't in a target market I would say probably no need, but since it is and your firm in active in the space they will hear about any deal that happens even if it's outside their box.
The RE world is small especially in submarkets that you work in, they will hear through a friend of a friend oh we just bought this deal a guy you work with invested.
Better to disclose it maybe after it closes? Then say hey disclosing it to let you know and if there's an issue then you can say not in our buy box, etc etc if they ask. Who knows they may not even take a second look, people are busy and if you throw it in mid day or at the beginning of the day on a Monday it may get lost lol.
Friday 4 pm emails work great for this
Solid advice, thanks. The thing is that on this deal there are like 6 GPs (we’re syndicating it) of which 3 of them are the public face: signing on loan docs, guarantors, on the PPM etc. I’m only on the Managers Agreement which is not public facing. I have been on emails with the brokers, so to your point they could bring it up to my firm casually that they saw my name on an email chain.
Unfortunately our Compliance Guy reviews everything. He’s a nice guy to talk with but is very meticulous and sees everything come through via a compliance software we have. But yeah maybe I can sneak it by on a Friday and in the summer lull lol
Ah got it, well what's the alternative you don't disclose it and they can fire you?
It's not like you're set for life from this deal and it is guaranteed, better to disclose it now and learn that this deal profile is ok to invest in or not and make decisions from there.
Once you have 5-10+ plus have the capital to buy a few of your own deals who gives af what they think and hear, but you're not there yet.
To answer the question directly, if I don’t disclose it and they find out then I’ll be violating the Compliance policy I signed when I joined and sign every quarter (they make us attest and disclose every quarter). I MIGHT be able to play the “I’m new here I didn’t know I’m so sorry” card once but idk if that’s the best move either.
I guess I’m afraid of what you’re saying, where I disclose it, if they say no, then I know for sure that I can’t do it. It will be in writing and I would have to consciously “disobey” them and continue investing on the side. But if I just don’t ask them, then they won’t tell and it just lives in an unspoken ether of whether I can invest in it vs not.
Thanks for your continued insights!
A lot of times this is just so off papered properly. You’re going to eventually have spare cash and you need to invest it somewhere. It’s very hard to tell someone they aren’t allowed to buy a private asset. (Can understand public equities). Would recommend telling them, papering it, and moving on. If the senior people do it and they told you, they won’t stop got.
Thank you. Yea I just don’t know if the senior people get a pass because of politics and I won’t because I’m new. Or if they’re just investing in other markets that aren’t in our buy box. They’ve probably done some LP investments in the sunbelt like everyone else does and our firm does that too, so there’s bound to be some overlap. Unless they only do like local commercial RE with their country club buddies, which is also likely.
Personally wouldn’t disclose and know several tenured people who haven’t and won’t disclose either
Tenured, seems he's not there yet. Disclose it now, learn if it is ok or not to invest in certain focuses and change from there.
Once you're more senior or have fuck you money you can do what you want.
I don’t really think it has to do with tenure in terms of who’s declaring. Those are just the people who can afford to do outside deals lmfao
Thank you. Okay yea I feel like it’s not something people choose to disclose if they’re senior. I’m still new so I don’t want to go against the grain just yet.
I get the feeling if you’re asking it here it means you know you need to disclose it. Just disclose it and figure out if you can actually do this.
I knew a guy who was fired for doing almost exactly what you're doing now (he was the main/only GP though). He never told the company he worked for but they found out and his departure was very abrupt. It sounds like you're going to do it regardless of their approval so just be aware I think it's pretty likely they'll fire you if they find out after the fact.
Yikes. Okay thank you. I’ll hope they just never find out until I quit.
I've seen people get fired over this. Different if you're an LP, but as a gp it's different. Especially as what you're doing is in their buy box.
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