As a state or Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) registered RIA, your firm is obligated to comply with specific rules and requirements designed to protect investors and the market at large.
And while these rules are put in place for a very specific reason, they can often, especially for smaller RIAs, be a drain on time, resources and budget.
In this blog, we’ll highlight three best practices to help your firm maximize its resources, while minimizing compliance risk.
How to make the most of your RIA’s compliance resources
Every firm will have unique business practices, and therefore compliance requirements. However, by employing certain best practices and tactics, you can empower your firm’s compliance program to achieve efficiency without sacrificing effectiveness.
1. Educating your team
An educated team is essential to a properly functioning compliance program. In fact, as mandated by the SEC, a CCO must have sufficient knowledge of the Advisers Act. Should your firm only have one person responsible for your compliance program (the CCO) then it is legally mandated for that person to be educated on compliance regulations and rulings and their implications on your firm.
However, even if you have a team of 50, ensuring proper education for every functionality is advisable. Especially given the pace of rulemaking that we’ve seen in recent months.
Educating your team can mean different things for different firms. Some examples include:
- Training courses or educational series provided by accredited and/or approved vendors.
- Internal team meetings which cover recent compliance updates.
- Subscribing to newsletters and resources which cover compliance news.
- Achieving industry designations, such as the IACCP® designation.
2. Bringing in third-party resources
The simple fact is, sometimes you just can’t do it all. And for some, that may be an indicator that it’s time to bring on another full-time employee. However, that option isn’t always in the budget.
Which means teams are tasked with finding additional resources which don’t hurt the bottom line. And often that can mean investing in outsourced services and resources.
The true benefit of this option is that you can customize your investment to match your necessary budget. So whether that means a one-time consultant who is able to verify the efficacy of your program, or signing up for ongoing managed services which outsource the more time-consuming aspects of the job, you have the flexibility to make the right decision for your firm.
3. Automating manual tasks
One of the best ways to maximize your existing resources and offload the more burdensome aspects of the job? Automating manual tasks.
But beyond simply automation, compliance technologies enable firms to:
- Establish a digital process around the submission of pre-clearance requests and disclosures.
- Connect disparate data sets to create a holistic view of your compliance data and easily identify potential conflicts of interest and evaluate risk across an organization.
- Export visual analytics, dashboards and ad-hoc reports to quickly share pertinent compliance information.
- Streamline compliance activities throughout the year, all while automatically building compliance program documentation.
Achieving Compliance with Confidence
Compliance is constantly changing. Which makes your job as compliance professional, that much more demanding.
However, by investing in an industry-recognized education program, leveraging third-party resources and investing in compliance technology automation, your firm can maximize efficacy and minimize risk.
And with COMPLY, you can achieve it all with one reliable partner.
One COMPLY combines technology, services and education to empower compliance programs (like yours) with curated resources matched to the specific requirements and challenges you face every day.
Ready to learn more? Schedule time to speak with an expert today.