Regulatory Changes For Advisors That Are More Exciting Than The New Game of Thrones Season

Well, that might not be entirely true, but now I might have your attention.

By now most of you are aware that the SEC approved amendments to increase the disclosure requirements under the Advisers Act.  If you’re not, then I’m sorry to be the one to add to your list of 99 problems.

The good news is that Orion is aware of the changes and is working to make this additional reporting a little easier on you.

Anyway, if after September 30th you go to update your ADV, you will notice significant changes were made to the ADV.  And rather than get into a long boring recap of the specific changes, I think a better use of our time would be to review what Orion is doing to help you with these changes.

If you want a quick overview of the ADV changes, I encourage you to review the red-lined version of the Form ADV that the SEC published.  You can access this document HERE, at the SEC website www.sec.gov, or by searching the internet for “ADV Changes Redline”.

In the meantime, let’s focus on the solutions.

IMPROVEMENTS TO COMPLIANCE CORNER

First, we are doubling the number of data queries available in the ADV section of the Compliance Corner.  These changes are designed to provide you the information you need to respond to several of the new or modified SEC requirements.

If you haven’t seen the queries before, now would be a great time to become familiar with them.  The current queries return information about your AUM, number of clients, number of non-US clients, etc., all good information to have when you are doing your annual or other-than-annual amendment.

Please note that the quality of the information provided by these queries is really in your control and dependent upon how your Firm is using the data fields included in these queries.

Orion will also be making bond rating information and queries available to assist in some of the additional asset classifications that the SEC is requiring.  Once complete, these will also be available through Compliance Corner.

The Amendments also modify the books and records requirements of Section 204-2 of the Advisers Act.  Specifically, the amendments require Advisers to maintain ALL communications, sent or received, containing calculated performance, rate of return, or securities recommendations.

Under section 204-2(a)(16) of the Advisers Act, Advisers were previously required to maintain the originals if the communication was distributed to 10 or more persons.  The amendments remove this 10 person condition.

HOW TO CATCH UP ON THE REGULATORY CHANGES

For the entire list of changes to the FORM ADV, please read to 17 CFR Parts 275 and 279 Release No. IA-4509 in the Final Rules section on the SEC website.

It’s only 165 pages of government legalese, so grab a snack and an adult beverage.  You’ll also want to take a look at the SEC’s recent “Information Update” issued this month, as this provides some additional clarity around what to do if you need to file an other-than-annual amendment on or after October 1st, but before your next annual filing.

The short answer is, enter zeros in the new fields if you don’t have the data and then add the complete information at your next annual amendment.

If you would like to discuss these changes, please contact Orion at Compliance@OrionAdvisor.com.

0356-OAS-10/2/2017

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About Kevin Zemann
Kevin Zemann serves as Compliance Manager for Orion. Kevin enjoys spending time with his family, helping others, and is addicted to learning.