The final regulations governing implementation of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), while significant in length, provide little practical guidance to hedge fund managers, who face myriad challenges in determining how to comply with the daunting new legislation.  Yet the failure to comply with the legislation’s detailed and wide-ranging requirements can have severe economic consequences for hedge funds and their investors.  To fill the information gap left by the absence of explicit regulatory guidance, Rothstein Kass recently hosted a webinar providing hedge fund managers with practical insight on preparing for FATCA, including, among other things, a checklist of steps that hedge fund managers should take to begin preparing for FATCA as it is phased in over the next few years.  This article summarizes the key insights from the webinar.  See also “What Impact Will FATCA Have on Offshore Hedge Funds and How Should Such Funds Prepare for FATCA Compliance?,” Hedge Fund Law Report, Vol. 6, No. 5 (Feb. 1, 2013).