
Kathryn Stephany, JD
AREAS OF EXPERTISE
• Operational Due Diligence
• Governance
• Operational Controls
Prior to her current role as General Counsel, Kate Stephany worked as securities attorney at FactRight since 2013.
Kate focuses on the business/formation areas of a company. Though she was new to the industry when she started at FactRight, her previous experience in bankruptcy law and banking helped her excel, and after a year she was promoted to project lead.
After obtaining her undergraduate degree, Kate worked in the finance department of a large insurance company, and moved to the Twin Cities a few years later to attend law school. Prior to working at FactRight, Kate held several positions, including contract work in due diligence for an international financial services company, and practiced bankruptcy law.
Kate is an avid knitter, winning awards from the Minnesota State fair, and enjoys camping with her husband.
- Juris Doctorate, William Mitchell College of Law
- Bachelor of Science, Finance, University of Illinois
- Past co-vice chair of Legal and Regulatory Committee, ADISA
- Member of ADISA legal and Regulatory committee
- Member, State Bar of Minnesota
- MSU Women in Leadership Advisory Board – 2021
Recent Blogs from FactRight
- Loan Guarantee Fees in Investment Programs: Risk Compensation or Rent Seeking?by kevin@factright.com (Kevin Kirkeby) on November 20, 2023 at 7:53 pm
Company owners and other executives often receive compensation for providing a personal guarantee to a commercial loan their investment program is seeking. The size of this personal guarantee fee varies considerably, as does the level of disclosure. We believe the personal guarantor should be compensated, but it must be commensurate with the risk the guarantor is taking on. Drawing upon FactRight’s experience in reviewing private real estate and other alternative investment programs, this blog post focusses on personal guarantees (rather than corporate guarantees), discusses the typical range of fees, and reviews the factors that influence a reasonable fee amount.
- FactRight Takes Salt Lake Cityby Kate@FactRight.com (Kate Stephany) on September 7, 2023 at 5:11 pm
*Olympic Trumpet flair*
- Navigating the Cap Rate Landscape: How Real Estate Cap Rates Relate to Real Interest Ratesby Jeff.B@factright.com (Jeff Baumgartner) on August 9, 2023 at 6:02 pm
With limited success for centuries, astronomers charted the stars with hopes of better understanding the universe until one day when Copernicus suggested that the earth was orbiting the sun. Once his epiphany was fully understood, empires could navigate the globe with unprecedented precision by knowing exactly where they were by looking up at the stars. Today, there is no shortage of cap rate/interest rate correlation theories in our industry. Perhaps more fully understanding commercial real estate cap rates and their orientation to interest rates can aid alternative investors in navigating the horizon of real estate investment opportunities.
- FINRA Regulatory Notice 23-08: Building on Regulatory Notice 10-22 to Develop More Robust Due Diligence of Private Placement Offeringsby jake@factright.com (Jacob Heidkamp) on June 28, 2023 at 6:26 pm
FINRA recently released Regulatory Notice 23-08, which provides a reminder to FINRA members of their reasonable investigation obligations when selling private placement investments to their clients under Regulation D. The Regulatory Notice marks FINRA’s first substantial discussion of due diligence related to private offerings since Regulatory Notice 10-22, which was released in April 2010, and forms a crucial part of the foundation of broker-dealer due diligence practices in satisfying their reasonable investigation requirements for offering private placement investment opportunities for their clients. While Regulatory Notice 23-08 does not create new legal or regulatory requirements or new interpretations of existing regulations, the notice does identify areas for consideration and focus for FINRA members in establishing new or modifying existing practices, based on certain observations and examples that FINRA has included in the Regulatory Notice 23-08. In this blog, we will explore some of these areas of focus and some practical steps broker-dealers can take to enhance their due diligence practices based on areas identified in Regulatory Notice 23-08.
- Not All Units Are Created Equal in Broker-Dealer and RIA-Distributed Investment Programsby gail@factright.com (Gail Schneck) on June 13, 2023 at 3:44 pm
This blog looks at what unit pricing in an investment program offering means to your investors and how to determine whether such pricing treats all investors “fairly.”