We’re sure you’ve heard about the SEC’s Rule 204A-1—otherwise known as the Code of Ethics Rule. That’s the one that states that all RIA firms must meet SEC requirements for personal securities trading.
But while compliance is critical for every RIA, like anything else in your business, the important oversight and compliance procedures you need everyone to follow can fall by the wayside if you aren’t vigilant.
In our February software release, we’re making it a little bit easier for RIA firms who use Orion to maintain their code of ethics, using a new employee trade monitoring tool called Inform.
Why We Built Inform for Compliance Officers
When we started Orion Advisor Services in 1999, we built our software because we couldn’t find a solution on the market that provided all the solutions we wanted.
Now, twenty years later, we’re still building solutions because no other employee trade monitoring tools on the market seem to provide the exact mix of functionality and usability that our advisors demand.
If we break it down simply, the other solutions on the market fall short in four key areas, by:
- Offering limited access to custodial data feeds, creating an inability to monitor some trading activity
- Requiring a single, inflexible set of rules for all clients, which creates poor workflows for users
- Creating the need for manual data maintenance, leading to back-office inefficiency
- Providing limited access to firm trading data, which leads to lackluster reporting on front running
Inform seeks to remedy each of these four inefficiencies by seamlessly integrating with the full Orion Connect portfolio accounting system, and using our years of innovative technology development to create a better way forward*.
How Inform Automates Employee Trade Monitoring for RIA Firms
Inform takes each of the four ways that most compliance software solutions fall short and turns each into a strength.
Here’s how Inform helps you do more with your data:
- Set custom rules and workflows for increased efficiency across many client types
- Access all of Orion’s trading data to automate front running reviews for firm-wide trading analysis, creating an invaluable time-saving process
- Accomplish tasks through a dashboard-centric interface for an enhanced user experience
- Track employee trades at over 1,000 custodians through Orion’s custodial and aggregation relationships
In years past, most of these tasks would have been time-consuming and prone to data entry errors. Inform helps automate these manual processes and provide you with an electronic audit file that makes proving your work simple.
And what’s more, by maintaining compliance data in-house with Orion—instead of stacking multiple third-party solutions to solve for all your compliance needs—you can reduce or eliminate outsourcing costs while reducing the possibility of a data breach by exposing your client data to more software vendors.
A Full-Service Compliance Offering
Inform is the latest innovation in Orion’s compliance software suite.
In addition to the custom workflows, automatic trade reviews, and other employee tracking you can perform through Inform, Orion’s compliance solution also gives you these powerful features:
- Conduct test audits using the data stored in Orion
- View filing forms in intuitive dashboards
- Screen clients against Anti-Money Laundering lists
- Schedule recurring queries to supervise firm procedures
- Organize and produce records for SEC or state regulatory exams
Orion’s compliance tools provide you with a seamless, integrated option that allows you to stay ahead of your Code of Ethics obligations with an affordable solution.
Inform will be available in the February Software Update, releasing to all Orion advisors on February 23rd, 2019.
For more information about Inform, click here to attend an upcoming webinar.
*Available for an additional cost. Contact Compliance @Orionadvisor.com for more details.
0117-OAS-2/13/2019