Stay on the Right Side of Compliance with Employee Trade Monitoring Tools

One of the best ways to become a more effective leader and business owner is to automate the tasks that you don’t like to do.

Do you ever get to the end of the day and look at your task list to see what you avoided? You finished a financial plan for a new client, rebalanced the portfolios that needed to be adjusted, and returned emails and phone calls to everyone who reached out.

But there’s still one thing left on your to-do list: Check employee accounts to monitor their trade activity. 

Employee trade monitoring doesn’t have to be a stressful or inconvenient part of your job. 

Orion’s tools help you automate the entire process so you can wrap up your day and continue spending your time on building your business, not checking up on employees. 

The Code of Ethics for RIA Firms

If you’re an independent RIA, it’s your fiduciary responsibility to put your clients first. Part of how you can do that is to ensure that your firm, and your employees, are always acting in an ethical and professional way.

The SEC has already provided the guidance for that type of behavior when it comes to the holdings of any investment advisor. 

Rule 204a-1 is all about that code of ethics for RIA firms, and it includes a section on personal securities trading. You might not like that you have to keep tabs on what each employee owns and their buy/sell histories, but it’s a critical requirement to help protect consumers (and yourself in the event of an SEC audit).

Rule 204a-1 indicates three distinct things every firm has to do. You have to regularly collect holdings reports, transaction reports, and review transactions regularly, but no less than quarterly. 

If your firm doesn’t have a separate, dedicated compliance department, it’s all the more important for you to be able to complete these reviews quickly.

How Orion Makes Employee Trade Monitoring Simple

The Orion platform has everything you need to simplify your trade monitoring requirements. 

Notably, you can automatically monitor and compare employee trades against firm-wide trading activity to flag any suspicious activity.

An RIA firm’s Code of Ethics doesn’t begin and end with trading activity, of course. You can also use Orion’s platform to distribute and maintain any required documentation to keep staff up-to-date and current with disclosures and attestations.

You can get started by opening the Compliance app in Orion Connect. All employee trade monitoring tools can be found in the Inform tool in the left-hand menu. 

If you haven’t set up monitoring before, you’ll be greeted with instructions on how to get started.

After a brief consultation with our compliance experts, your firm will be set up with all the required automated software tools you need to keep your firm on the right side of compliance and run a tight ship when it comes to your requirements.

Stay informed with Orion’s compliance suite. Watch an on-demand walkthrough to see how you can set up custom rules and create a user-friendly compliance experience.

 

0845-OAT-03/16/2021

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