Company: COHN
Filing Date: 2025-03-12
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001437749-25-007158
Chunk: 291

Company: Cohen & Co Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-03-12
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1
Chunk 291
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 Advisers Act of 1940, as amended and interpretations on standards of care. It is unclear, however, whether the SEC and its staff will increase the level of enforcement if, in the future, there is an effort on the part of the federal government to increase restrictions on business conduct, which could result in significant changes in, and uncertainty with respect to, legislation, regulation and government policy.

Some of our asset management clients generally may redeem their investments, which could reduce our asset management fee revenues.

Our asset management fund agreements generally permit investors to redeem their investments with us after an initial “lockup” period, during which redemptions are restricted or penalized. However, any such restrictions may be waived by us. Thereafter, redemptions are permitted at quarterly or annual intervals. If the return on the assets under our management does not meet investors’ expectations, investors may elect to redeem their investments and invest their assets elsewhere, including with our competitors. Our management fee revenues correlate directly with the amount of assets under our management; therefore, redemptions may cause our fee revenues to decrease. Investors may decide to reallocate their capital away from us and to other asset managers for a number of reasons, including poor relative investment performance, changes in prevailing interest rates that make other investments more attractive, changes in investor perception regarding our focus or alignment of interest, dissatisfaction with changes in or a broadening of a fund’s investment strategy, changes in our reputation, and departures or changes in responsibilities of key investment professionals. For these and other reasons, the pace of redemptions and corresponding reduction in our assets under management could accelerate. In the future, redemptions could require us to liquidate assets under unfavorable circumstances, which would further harm our reputation and results of operations.

The investment management business is intensely competitive, which could have a material adverse impact on our business. 

We have been working to grow our asset management business and we compete as an investment manager for both fund investors and investment opportunities. The investment management business is highly fragmented, with our competitors consisting primarily of sponsors of public and private investment funds, real estate development companies, SPACs, business development companies, investment banks, commercial finance companies and operating companies acting as strategic buyers of businesses. We believe that competition for fund investors is based primarily on:

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      investment performance; 

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      investor liquidity and willingness to invest; 

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      investor perception of investment managers’ drive, focus and alignment of interest; 

      •