On January 19, 2012, the SEC's Division of Investment Management (Division) issued Q&As on new rule 202(a)(11)(G)-1 under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 (Advisers Act), which defines "family office" as required under the Dodd-Frank Act (for a discussion of this definition, see Legal Update, SEC Approves Final Dodd-Frank Rules on Oversight of Investment Advisers and Family Offices Definition). Dodd-Frank excludes advisers to family offices from the definition of "investment adviser" and, therefore, exempts them from the SEC registration requirements under the Advisers Act. To help entities determine whether they qualify as a family office under the new rule, the Division's responses clarify the meaning of:

To learn more about the family office exemption and other key provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act relating to investment advisers, see Practice Notes, Summary of the Dodd-Frank Act: Private Equity and Hedge Funds and Road Map to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010.