With highly contested midterm elections less than three months away, investment advisers must be aware of, and pay close attention to, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) pay-to-play rule governing their business, SEC Rule 206(4)-5. The rule provides that when investment advisory firms and their covered associates make political contributions to certain candidates, the firms are prohibited from providing services for compensation to the governmental entities that the candidates can control or exert influence over. The rule also prohibits...

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ESMA CSA on the risk management function The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) launched a Common Supervisory Action (CSA) on the risk management function of UCITS management companies and alternative investment fund managers (AIFMs) across the European Union. The CSA will be conducted throughout 2026 and 2027, in close collaboration with national competent authorities (NCAs). The objective of the CSA is to assess how market participants comply with key risk–related provisions under the UCITS and AIFMD frameworks. The focus will be on...

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What you need to know Where an organization wishes to engage or move personnel overseas, the most common structures include: Using an employer of record (EoR); Having the employee work remotely under the home country employment contract; Engaging personnel under an alternative working arrangement (e.g., as a contractor); Seconding personnel to a local entity; and Putting an employee on a leave of absence or the home country employment ceasing to operate and employing them with the local entity. Each of these...

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OpenAI recently disclosed that, during testing of one of its frontier artificial intelligence models, AI agents working to solve assigned tasks found ways to access the internet and ultimately infiltrate the systems of another AI company, Hugging Face. They did so through pathways OpenAI's developers never intended them to reach. The incident quickly dominated technology and cybersecurity headlines. It also prompted OpenAI to send two of its security engineers to Black Hat USA 2026, one of the cybersecurity industry's...

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IPTI’s usual monthly newsletter – the “President’s Message” – contains, inter alia, some summarised news articles from around the world. This IPTI publication – “Property Tax in the News” – contains some of the more interesting news articles concerning property taxes in North America and Europe which is where many of our members have a particular interest. Links to these and more, similarly summarised, articles – from North America, Europe and around the globe – can be found in...

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The Trump administration has prioritized immigration policy, with new developments emerging on an almost weekly basis. From changes affecting visa processing and adjustment of status to increased vetting, enforcement initiatives, employment authorization, humanitarian programs, and agency adjudication standards, employers and foreign nationals are navigating a rapidly shifting immigration landscape. This represents a departure from the approach adopted in 2021, under which USCIS officers were generally instructed to issue an RFE or NOID when additional evidence could potentially establish eligibility. Under...

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