From the people who ran the examinations.
Writing and media from Greenridge L&C Advisors on licensing, examinations, and compliance in regulated markets.
Insider Trading Controls at a Firm
Firms are required to build walls against the misuse of information they inevitably come to hold.
How Advisory Fees Are Disclosed
Clients are entitled to understand what they pay and every way the firm makes money from them.
Political Contributions and Pay-to-Play
A single campaign contribution can, under the rules, cost a firm the right to be paid by a government client.
The Annual Compliance Review
Once a year, the rule requires a firm to test whether its own program actually works.
Gifts and Entertainment Policies
Small courtesies are fine. The rules exist for the point where a gift becomes an inducement.
What Is a Mock Regulatory Exam?
The best way to find your gaps is to have someone find them before the regulator does.
Building a Compliance Program From Scratch
A new registered firm needs a real program on day one, not a template it grows into.
The Form ADV Annual Amendment
Once a year, every registered adviser has to prove its disclosure is still true.
Blue Sky Laws, Explained
State securities laws that add a layer of filings on top of federal rules, one state at a time.
Regulation D and Private Placements
How companies raise money privately without registering the offering, and the rules that make it legal.
Outside Business Activities and Conflicts
What the firm's people do outside the firm can create conflicts the firm has to manage.
Business Continuity Planning for Advisers
A plan for the day the office, the systems, or a key person is suddenly unavailable.
Cybersecurity and Protecting Client Data
Regulators increasingly treat a data breach as a compliance failure, not just bad luck.
A Compliance Calendar for a Small RIA
Most compliance failures are not decisions. They are deadlines nobody was watching.
Wrap Fee Programs, Explained
One bundled fee for advice and trading, and a set of disclosures that keep it honest.
What Is Form PF?
A confidential filing that lets regulators watch private funds for risks to the wider system.
Testimonials and Endorsements Under the Marketing Rule
Client praise is now allowed in advertising, on conditions that trip up firms who treat it casually.
The Code of Ethics for RIAs
A required document that turns a firm's duty to clients into rules its own people must follow.
Books and Records for Advisers
If you cannot produce it, for the regulator it did not happen.
Suspicious Activity Reports, Explained
When something looks wrong, the law requires you to say so, quietly and on a deadline.
KYC and the Customer Identification Program
Knowing who your customer actually is is the foundation everything else in AML stands on.
Money Transmitter Licensing, Explained
Move other people's money and you may need a license in nearly every state you touch.
State vs. SEC Adviser Registration
Where you register depends mostly on how much you manage, and it changes who examines you.
What Is Regulation Best Interest?
The standard that raised what a broker owes a retail customer, without quite making them a fiduciary.
What a Chief Compliance Officer Does
Every registered firm needs one. The role is far more than a title on an org chart.
The Custody Rule for RIAs
Holding client assets, or even the ability to move them, triggers some of the strictest safeguards in adviser regulation.
The SEC Marketing Rule, Explained
The rule that finally allowed testimonials, and set exacting conditions for using them.
What Is Form CRS?
A two-page relationship summary that has to say the hard things simply.
What Is Form ADV?
The registration and disclosure document at the center of every investment adviser's regulatory life.
RIA vs. Broker-Dealer, Explained
Both help people with investments. One owes a fiduciary duty; the other historically owed a different standard.
AML for Small Firms
A small firm does not get a smaller obligation. It gets less room to fake one.
Preparing for Your First SEC Exam
The examiner is not trying to trap you. They are trying to close a set of questions. Help them.
Written Supervisory Procedures That Hold Up
The problem is rarely that a firm has no WSPs. It is that the WSPs describe a firm that does not exist.
How to Register as an Investment Adviser
State or SEC, ADV Parts 1 and 2, and the questions to settle before you file.
When the Deficiency Letter Arrives
The response becomes part of your record. Do not improvise it.
Building Where Regulation Stops Everyone Else
The firm-wide thesis: the hard part of building in regulated markets has moved from technology to regulation.
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