New York (HedgeCo.net) – The Securities and Exchange Commission seems likely to allow additional time for investment advisers to make registration changes required by the Dodd-Frank Act, according to an April 8 letter from Robert Plaze, Associate Director of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Investment Management, to David Massey, President of the North American Securities Administrators Association.

The Dodd-Frank Act generally will require investment advisers to hedge funds and other private funds to register with the SEC, unless they have no separate accounts and less than $150 million in assets under management or advise only venture capital funds. In addition, the Act will require many “mid-sized” registered advisers (those having between $25 million and $100 million of assets under management) to withdraw their SEC registration and to register instead with the applicable state or states.

These statutory changes are slated to take effect July 21, 2011, and the SEC says it still plans to adopt implementing rules by that date. However, citing the time needed for advisers to make these registration changes, and for the Investment Adviser Registration Depository system to complete the necessary re-programming, Plaze says the Division expects that the SEC will allow a grace period giving advisers until the first quarter of 2012 to register or deregister as the case may be and come into compliance with applicable requirements.