Your Personal Compliance Expert

This is a loaded question, but it depends on your broker-dealer, existing FINRA regulations, whether you have a non-solicitation clause in your employment contract, and how you use client information when you leave one firm for another or to your own RIA. All these situations impact whether you have a smooth transition or deal with the possibility of litigation and/or regulatory penalties. In 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) banned the use of non-compete clauses for most employment contracts. The FTC felt that non-compete clauses in contracts harmed competition by reducing labor mobility and innovation. Whether this is a benefit to you or not is yet to be seen.

“Broker Protocol” was established in 2004 as a formal set of standards to address breakaway Registered Representatives (RRs) moving from one broker- dealer to another or to an RIA platform. Some compliance consultants might recommend this as a formal path for a smooth breakaway, but we are on the fence. The question we wrestle with is, “Is the Broker Protocol a standard for accepted transition or a tool for the broker-dealer to sway clients away from you during the transition period?” You make the call. Keep this in mind, the idea behind the Broker Protocol was to minimize litigation for breakaway RRs; yet within resent years, two of the founding members (UBS and Morgan Stanley) exited the Broker Protocol and litigation is still happening.

Yes, we can help you with as little, or as much, compliance assistance and oversight that you would like. Our services are divided into the following groups:

• Maintenance Services – Maintenance Services are designed to help you maintain your existing registration with the SEC or with State Regulatory Agencies. This includes IARD Administration, Form ADV, and Form U-4 amendment filings, a checklist with instruction on your reports and financial documents to prepare. We also include sample cover letters and forms to submit to the SEC or State Regulatory Agency.
• Self-Governance Services – The SEC and State Regulatory Agencies require you to adopt policies and procedures designed to detect, prevent, and correct violations of those federal and state regulations that are relevant to the operation of your advisory practice. Self-Governance Services begin with standard Written Policies and Procedures Manual and our CCO Compliance Calendar, a do-it-yourself compliance review to be completed quarterly. The CCO Compliance Calendar consists of a Quarterly Compliance Guide & Checklist and Best Practice Review forms with clear instructions for you to complete the tasks to support the policies adopted in your Policies and Procedures Manual.
• CCO Support – CCO Support services are directed to RIAs looking to hand-off some or most of your compliance duties. Under this arrangement, we will partner with you to develop a customized Written Policies and Procedures Manual and CCO Compliance Calendar. The level of our involvement to complete the Best Practice Reviews and offer instruction on any corrective measures is determined by you.

Yes, we can assist with all RIA compliance matters.

If a State Regulatory Agency or the SEC indicates that findings were made during an exam that could result in disciplinary action, we can assist with responding to such agency and implement any corrective measures to bring you back into compliance.

We can handle all growth issues such as: state registrations, transition registrations to/from the SEC, Investment Advisor Representative registrations, complex compliance issues and disclosures, writing plain-English documents, agreements, Form 13F Reports, software recommendations, and on-going services through our CCO Compliance Calendar® and CCO Support® services. We are not limited by any state or federal regulation when it comes to serving Registered Investment Advisors. Our only limit is you.

Our focus is on state and federal regulations relating to Registered Investment Advisors. Specifically, the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, the “1940 Act,” and Title 17, Part 275 of the Code of Federal Regulations, the “1940 Act Rules.” In addition, all 50 States and U.S. Territories have adopted their own securities laws, referred to as “Blue Sky Laws,” as safeguards to protect their constituents from securities fraud and bad-faith actors. We deal with all State Regulatory Agencies and the SEC on a regular basis. All the services we offer are directed to assisting you comply with these regulations.

The cornerstone of your advisory practice is to defend and uphold your fiduciary duty to your clients; all advisory activity is subject to and accountable to this duty. Section 206 of the 1940 Act, typically referred to as the “Antifraud Provisions,” binds your advisory practice to a duty of “care” and “loyalty” with regards to ALL the services you render.

You owe each of your clients an affirmative duty of utmost good faith and full and fair disclosure of all material facts; and to hold in confidence that which a client has entrusted you by acting in good faith for that client’s sole benefit and interest with loyalty to those interests. Any variance from this duty, even if such variance might have been committed unintentionally, could potentially disadvantage a client and therefore an act of fraud and deceit.

Your fiduciary duty demands you assess your compliance risks and adopt written policies and procedures that creates awareness of your business standards, expected ethical conduct by your supervised persons, and compliance obligations to then establish effective internal compliance controls designed to detect, prevent, and correct violations of those federal and state regulations that are relevant to the operation of our advisory practice.

We will have meetings to gather information from you to determine the services you want to offer. Are you a fee-based or fee-only advisor? Do you sell insurance? Do you have any affiliations with an accounting firm, insurance agency, or a broker-dealer? Do you manage a hedge fund? Other questions would be related to ownership structure, your fee schedule, disciplinary matters, and any conflicts of interest. These will be the beginning steps to put together all sections of the Form ADV to then prepare compliance forms and agreements and make registration with a State Regulatory Agency or the SEC.

We do our best to be immediately available to answer any compliance questions or regulatory issues related to examinations conducted by a State Regulatory Agency or the SEC.

We have over 30-years’ experience dealing with investment advisor regulations and have delt with just about every situation you could experience as a Registered Investment Advisor. If we don’t have the answer right away, we know where to get it.