The end of the year is a good time to assess the strength of your compliance program. SmartRIA’s Software as a Partnership® can help your compliance team keep tabs on the actions of your company and organize compliance to make it easy. Below are some things to keep in mind as 2022 approaches: Prior to December 13, 2021, RIAs need to pay their renewal fees as indicated on the preliminary renewal statement available on the EBill section of the FIRM
Read MoreStrategic Partnership Announced with SmartRIA, Dynasty Financial Partners and MarketCounsel
SmartRIA’s End-to-End Solution Helps Financial Advisory Practices Simplify & Optimize Compliance Workflows MIAMI BEACH, Fla., Dec. 7, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Dynasty Financial Partners (Dynasty) and MarketCounsel, together, announced a strategic partnership with SmartRIA at The MarketCounsel Summit today. SmartRIA is a provider of comprehensive technology solutions for automating and streamlining compliance for registered investment advisers (RIAs). “When we were looking for cutting-edge software to make compliance considerably easier, more operationally efficient, and more collaborative for advisory organizations, we found that SmartRIA was the
Read MoreSEC Policy Shifts Include Potential Admissions of Wrongdoing
Gurbir Grewal, the new director of the Division of Enforcement for the SEC, signaled several potential changes in the SEC’s enforcement priorities under his new leadership. His division would “recommend aggressive use” of various remedies, notably, seeking admissions of wrongdoing as a condition of settlement in certain instances. Some specific penalties include: Barring violators from serving as officers or directors of public companies Restrictions on stock trading or participating in securities offerings Imposing undertakings on corporate defendants to prevent future
Read MoreAlert: NASAA Annual Enforcement Report Released
The North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) published its annual enforcement report on Sept. 29. In the report, state securities regulators conducted an increasing number of investigations and enforcement actions related to digital assets, precious metals and other commodities, internet and social media schemes, and self-directed individual retirement accounts. In its report, based on 2020 data, NASAA divulged that state securities regulators opened 5,501 new investigations and continued to work on 2,572 ongoing investigations. Those 8,073 investigations resulted in 2,202
Read More9 Mistakes to Avoid When Learning Fintech
Tech adoption can be a huge issue for RIA companies, and virtually any business these days. If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that most people can quickly adopt new tech. (Online meetings anyone?) Meanwhile, some may initially resist new tech and later grow to love it. And then there’s the handful of people who avoid it altogether. Let’s just call them late bloomers. All that goes to show that learning new software and technology can be a challenge
Read MoreSmartRIA Gets an Elegant New Look and Feel
SmartRIA’s development team has been working for months on refreshing the look and feel of our software. These changes make using the software a more pleasant experience, and the branding is also more in line with the company’s public website. While the changes are only “skin deep,” there are some big ideas that went into this latest update. Herb Himes, SmartRIA’s interface and experience design lead for the project, offered some details on what’s new: Look and feel – Our
Read MoreSEC Scrutinizing RIAs on 12b-1 Fees, Revenue Sharing, and Wrap Fees
The SEC recently took enforcement actions against three Registered Investment Advisers (RIAs) that breached their fiduciary duty to advisory clients. In particular, the SEC took disciplinary action against RIAs over issues related to 12b-1 fees, revenue sharing arrangements and wrap fee programs. In brief: The SEC found that one of the firms failed to report compensation from 12b-1 fees and revenue sharing. The firm agreed to a $2.4 million settlement. The two other RIAs avoided paying transaction fees in wrap
Read MoreHow to Train Your Team on New RIA Compliance Tech
Bringing on new tech for RIA compliance can be a major undertaking on top of handling the constantly-updated compliance regulations a firm must navigate. Usually any new tech is software of some kind to help make compliance easier to handle. But once you have new tech selected from a vendor, there’s another huge task. The software has to be implemented with and understood by your staff as you train new technology. At the beginning stage, as a chief compliance officer,
Read MoreSEC Findings: Wrap Fee Initiative
The SEC has been watching wrap fee programs for quite a while. From 2017-19, the SEC’s annual examination priorities named wrap fee programs as putting investors at risk. The SEC’s Division of Examinations (Division) released a July 21, 2021 Risk Alert with guidance from examiners during its Wrap Fee Initiative. The Risk Alert, “Observations from Examinations of Investment Advisers Managing Client Accounts That Participate In Wrap Fee Programs,” contains compliance guidance for Registered Investment Advisers (RIAs) that recommend wrap fee
Read MoreSEC Charges 21 RIAs for Form CRS Filing and Delivery Failures
On July 26, 2021, the SEC announced that 21 Registered Investment Advisers (RIAs) settled charges alleging that they failed to file and deliver their client relationship summaries, known as Form CRS, in a timely manner. Form CRS is also frequently referred to as Form ADV Part 3. Six broker-dealers were also accused of not filing or delivering their client relationship summaries. On June 5, 2019, the SEC adopted Form CRS and required SEC-registered investment advisers and SEC-registered broker-dealers to file
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