RIA Compliance and Practice Management Blog

We are excited to announce our new Securities and Exchange Commission's ("SEC") Marketing Rule module as an enhancement to our industry leading MyRIACompliance^® software platform. The new enhancement was created in response to the SEC’s amended Rule 206(4)-1, under the Advisers Act, which addresses registered investment adviser ("RIA") firms marketing their services to clients and investors (“The Marketing Rule”). This Marketing Rule amends the existing Rule 206(4)-1 (“The Advertising Rule”) and also replaces Rule 206(4)-3 (“The Solicitation Rule”).

Each week we are giving you our weekly report highlighting the top compliance news articles from various industry news publications. We have selected the most relevant and important news articles related to registered investment adviser ("RIA") compliance and regulatory issues. This week's recap focuses on the Itegria acquisition by RIA in a Box, Think Advisors tech round up, and the Department of Labor’s (“DOL”) withdrawal of the independent contractor rule.

Here's our top investment adviser compliance articles for the week of April 30th, 2021:

We are thrilled to announce our recent acquisition of ITEGRIA, LLC, a leading provider of cloud-based virtual desktop solutions for RIAs.  As stated in the official announcement, the addition of ITEGRIA accelerates RIA in a Box’s vision to empower RIAs to efficiently address their compliance, cybersecurity, and operational needs with software.

Each week we are giving you our weekly report highlighting the top compliance news articles from various industry news publications. We have selected the most relevant and important news articles related to registered investment adviser ("RIA") compliance and regulatory issues. This week's recap focuses on The North American Securities Administrators Association's ("NASAA") annual report on RIA oversight, the Security and Exchange Commission's ("SEC") Ad Rule, and the Department of Labor's ("DOL") fiduciary exemption. 

Here's our top investment adviser compliance articles for the week of April 23rd, 2021:

On April 9^th, 2021, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) Division of Examinations’ released a new risk alert summarizing the findings from recent examinations of registered investment adviser ("RIA") firms and private funds offering environmental, social, and governance “ESG” products and services.

This risk alert follows the SEC’s focus on ESG-related investing highlighted in the list of 2021 examination priorities as well as the launch of the Climate and ESG Task Force within the Division of Enforcement.

In this release, the Division states it has observed firm’s different approaches to ESG investing and discusses the risks associated with a lack of standardized ESG definitions.

Each week we are giving you our weekly report highlighting the top compliance news articles from various industry news publications. We have selected the most relevant and important news articles related to registered investment adviser ("RIA") compliance and regulatory issues. This week's recap focuses on the Department of Labor’s “DOL” fiduciary rule guidance, a push for clarification on the Security and Exchange Commission’s (“SEC”) Regulation Best Interest ("Reg BI"), and cybersecurity attacks and prevention tips.

Here's our top investment adviser compliance articles for the week of April 16th, 2021:

On April 13, 2021, the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) released additional guidance to the “Improving Investment Advice for Workers & Retirees” exemption in the form of a FAQs sheet.

The DOL originally published the PTE 2020-02, “Improving Investment Advice for Workers & Retirees” exemption in December 2020, with an effective date of February 16, 2021. We previously published an overview of the exemption as it relates to both SEC and state registered investment advisor firms, on our blog page, available here.

The FAQ sheet is comprised of four sections: 1) background, 2) compliance dates, 3) definition of fiduciary investment advice, and 4) compliance with PTE 2020-02.

Below we highlight the four sections discussed in Tuesday’s release:

Each week we are giving you our weekly report highlighting the top compliance news articles from various industry news publications. We have selected the most relevant and important news articles related to registered investment adviser ("RIA") compliance and regulatory issues. This week's recap focuses on the Department of Labor’s (“DOL”) guidance to the “Improving Investment Advice for Workers & Retirees” exemption, the ESG alerts raised by the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) and strategies for marketing post-pandemic.

Here's our top investment adviser compliance articles for the week of April 9th, 2021:

Recordkeeping requirements for registered investment adviser (“RIA”) firms are set at a high bar. After all, your firm is dealing with vital personal documents for people and businesses. This is an important vault, and you need quick, easy access to the paper trail for several reasons.

SEC Rule 204-2 requires true, accurate and current records of the major categories we’ll explore here. That used to mean a storage unit full of boxes of files and now it might be a thumb drive or a digital vault in the cloud, but the content and intent are the same: accurate records, preserved in their original state, organized for easy retrieval.

Below we will highlight the major categories of records required for RIAs and the characteristics of each.

Each week we are giving you our weekly report highlighting the top compliance news articles from various industry news publications. We have selected the most relevant and important news articles related to registered investment adviser ("RIA") compliance and regulatory issues. This week's recap focuses on the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (“SEC”) plans to review various rules, tips on preparing for remote exams, and possible anti-money laundering policy plans for RIAs. 

Here's our top investment adviser compliance articles for the week of April 2nd, 2021: