With all the hullabaloo surrounding Crowdfunding this past week, I’m sure some of you may have heard that the decision to pass the new adjustments to Title III was not unanimous. Commissioner Michael S. Piwowar was the one vote against Title III. Now, you may be wondering how, after over 3 years of making adjustments, someone can still feel that it could still use some work; I’ve got news for you, that’s just politics. But in all seriousness, the Commissioner brings up a several good points to support his dissenting vote.
- The lower value, net worth or annual income, will be used to decide the cap for investors to get into crowdfunding; this is both the more conservative and the helicopter-mom approach.
- Twenty-nine states already have intrastate crowdfunding rules; as it is written right now, crowdfunders will have to navigate both federal and state level litigation.
- Rule 147 – Principal place of business should be enough to establish residency/doing business within a particular state; forget meeting “percentage thresholds” for business in that state.
In all, I would agree with the Commissioner, that these rules are a bit too restrictive. However, as he stated at the end of his address, there are 60 days for open comment. So, these rules can be changed in the future as necessary.
On a less serious note, hats off to Commissioner Piwowar for adding in some Halloween themed wording to the beginning of his statement:
“While crowdfunding was intended to be a treat for the smallest and least sophisticated companies seeking to raise capital, today’s rules are full of tricks.”
Very puny.
