MyComplianceOffice Blog

By Charles Lerner, Principal of Fiduciary Compliance Associates and John Roth, CCO of Venor Capital Management

On April 19, 2016, the SEC conducted a Compliance Outreach Program for investment adviser and investment company senior officers.  The conference was broadcast live and will be available on the SEC’s website.

We think the sessions on private funds advisers, questions and answers for advisers with $1 billion or less in regulatory AUM, and hot topics each provided helpful insights into the SEC’s thinking. While the SEC staff and some of the other presenters discussed issues of interest to the SEC, we believe that CCOs would benefit from additional practical advice on how to handle the issues addressed.

1. Suitable retirement advice is no longer enough. Brokers must act in their clients “best interest” when offering retirement advice. This means a ban on any commissions or financial incentives that might motivate advisors to advise against what would be in best interest for their clients. However, advisors are still permitted to recommend proprietary products.

Thinking of strategies to take your compliance program to the next level?

You need answers and we’ve got them.

MyComplianceOffice is partnering with a new Webinar host, Ann Oglanian of ReGroup LLC to give you the tools and cover the tips you need to level up your compliance program.

Join us for Survival of the Fittest: Compliance Program Evolution, Weds, April 6 at 12 pm EST.

Tune into the webinar and you can expect:

• A compliance program maturity model created to help you to measure the success of your compliance program
• A practical approach to assessing the current maturity of your program

The Compliance Program Maturity Model to be introduced by Regroup during the webinar presentation has been designed for compliance officers to allow you to review, monitor, and disseminate your compliance program. It will also help you to pinpoint the places where you can advance your reputation.

During Tuesday’s subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government, republican lawmakers questioned Securities and Exchange Committee (SEC) chair Mary Joe White on how a rule from the SEC to create stricter retail investment advice standards might be affected or operate in conjunction with a similar rule from the Department of Labor (DOL). The committee expressed concern about whether requiring compliance of similar rules from separate agencies might cause confusion for investment firms.