SEC audits are a lot like the holidays: they’re coming whether you’re ready or not. At this time of year, it isn’t just Santa who has gift-giving on his mind. But unwrapping the rules and regulations around gifting clients can be a ho-ho-hum ordeal.

Checking It Twice

In FY 2019, 15% of SEC-registered investment advisers were audited, and the OCIE issued more than 2,000 deficiency letters. One of the most commonly cited infractions involved advisors not following compliance policies and procedures. This includes lack of performing internal practice reviews, and non-adherence to practices related to employee expenses and gift-giving.

Most financial firm policies restrict or require disclosures on offering or receiving gifts. Before an adviser can give or take a gift, they must report it to the firm’s compliance department. But where is this information kept at your firm—if it’s logged at all?

The Gift That Keeps On Giving

Orion was born from the desire to help advisors work more efficiently. In addition to our mission of presenting a  superior user experience and cutting-edge technology, we work hard so you don’t have to. The latest weapon in our fight against inefficiency and hassle: Inform.

Powered by your Orion data, our robust compliance capabilities enable you to face regulatory obligations head on. Many firms rely on tracking gift-giving manually—taking up valuable time and resources. When that audit hits (and it will!) they are often caught unprepared. Inform offers an automated, easy-to-use tool to ensure your compliance standards are always ready. It’s like the perfect gift, all tied up with a bow.

Stocking Stuffers

Inform helps you take a three-sided approach and stay on the right side of compliance:

  • Regulatory Audit Preparation: Build regularly-scheduled compliance queries, conduct routine audits to verify compliance with internal policies, and Respond to requests from the SEC and state regulators quickly and accurately.
  • Proactive Oversight and Protection: Aggregate and view 13F filing reports and Form ADV reporting information, deliver reports to an SFTP location of your choice, and Screen clients automatically against anti-money laundering lists with an optional LexisNexis-integrated service.1
  • Employee Trade Monitoring: Monitor employee trade activity with access to 1000+ custodians, track approvals and rejections of gifts and outside business activities, and automate frontrunning reviews to further protect your firm.
Adding Inform to Orion’s built-in compliance capability gives you a comprehensive approach to eliminate outsourcing costs, reduce the risk of data breaches, and stay confident you’re avoiding potential regulatory violations.

And To All a Good Night

Whether your current compliance efforts are naughty or nice, your firm could benefit from adding Inform to your tech stack. Find out how 62% of clients complete compliance tasks faster with Orion.2

Contact us today for your very own Inform demo, or watch our  on-demand webinar to see Inform in action.

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1Integration with LexisNexis required

2Tech Validate – TVID: EB6-EE5-CB0

 

3279-OAS-12/04/2020