➤ Are you losing sleep worried about what the SEC will find during their next exam?
➤ Are you scared you will get fined for failing to maintain a robust compliance program and what that will do to your reputation when your clients find out?
➤ Are you angry that your CCO didn’t do their job and now you are getting chewed out by the regulators?
My RIA Lawyer protects RIAs from expensive penalties with SEC compliance services.
Your primary focus in business is serving your clients while creating the lifestyle of your dreams. Thus, you spend most of your time and energy on revenue-making activities. With so much time devoted to serving your clients, you might forget about SEC compliance. While SEC compliance doesn’t generate revenue, it can protect your firm from losing money. SEC compliance is as important to your firm’s bottom line as acquiring and servicing clients.
You need a team of experts at your side to ensure SEC compliance. At My RIA Lawyer, our firm focuses exclusively on SEC compliance for Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs) and FINRA compliance for broker-dealers, including those who are dually registered and may also be licensed with the NFA and CFTC.
With numerous service options, from our Compliance University to our ongoing compliance packages of services and the outsourced compliance department, we are here to meet your SEC compliance needs. Contact us today to find out how our SEC compliance attorneys and Compliance Officers can protect your firm.
The SEC is in existence to ensure that businesses are properly regulated in the securities markets and to also protect their investors. Most of the SEC regulations are dictated to ensure that corporate accounting practices are followed. These also deal with public disclosures and other tasks that help to protect investors against fraud and other manipulative practices.
The Securities and Exchange Commission also works as the main arbitrator and regulator of all corporate actions. Companies that issue such securities must work to ensure that they’re in compliance with all of the regulations as per the requirements or face legal action.
My RIA Lawyer has three options for RIAs that need help with SEC compliance. These options are:
Corporations that are listed on the reports must be in compliance when making annual reports and disclosures on a regular basis. This is a requirement of the SEC. The goal is to make the public aware of the financial condition and business practices of these companies.
That way, investors can always make an informed decision on their transactions. SEC also works to ensure that proper accounting practices are upheld at all times. Many of the required filings and disclosures that companies file must be filed in the proper fashion to ensure that the company remains in compliance with all of the SEC requirements. They must include the following:
• Quarterly and annual financial filings
• Annual reports for shareholders
• Shareholders are to receive proxy materials prior to annual meetings
• Executive compensation disclosures
All companies will face securities laws and regulations, as this is the basic requirement of most SEC compliance requirements. All of the laws must be followed by companies that are issuing securities, regardless of the manner or the phase at which they are being offered. These are the major laws regarding securities that SEC enforces:
The Securities Act of 1933 is considered the “truth in securities” law. This is an act that regulates the disclosure and registration of all securities and also works to prohibit fraud.
Securities Exchange Act of 1934 is the act that was created by the SEC and regulates the markets by requiring exchanges, brokers, transfer agents, dealers, clearing agencies, and many other market participants to register; it also works to establish the corporate finance reports that are required.
Trust Indenture Act of 1939 regulates the sale of debentures, bonds, and notes via trust indenture.
Investment Company Act of 1940 regulates the organization of all companies whose main business is investing, reinvesting, and trading of securities and those who offer their own forms of securities to the public as well as minimizing conflicts of interest.
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 is an act made by reforms to enhance corporate responsibility and improve financial disclosures, as well as fight accounting fraud. It created the Public Accounting Oversight Board that oversees the auditing industry.
Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 is the reformed practice that hurt the average consumer and investors by reforming the consumer protection act. It helps to regulate the trading restrictions and credit ratings and regulation of the financial products and the corporate governance and disclosure, enhancing transparency.
Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012 minimizes the regulatory requirements for small businesses when raising funds in the public capital markets.
The SEC enforces all of the disclosures and regulatory standards under these laws for securities. Compliances for companies must consider each act.
The job of the SEC is to oversee major market participants, including those such as SROs like FINRA, securities firms, and exchanges. Companies operating in this fashion, especially those that perform broker-dealer duties, must take extra precautions to remain in compliance with the SEC, as the rules that regulate markets can be very challenging and complex and are in constant motion of change.
The SEC maintains specific offices and divisions that are dedicated to the elimination of specific illegal activities. These activities include violations of the FCPA, insider trading, and other illegal activities that are considered malicious.
These are all taken very seriously and may have not only civil consequences but also criminal consequences. The enforcement in these areas is usually quite harsh, so it’s important that companies take great care to maintain their compliance in these areas.
At MyRia Lawyer, we represent both public and private companies in SEC compliance. Our attorneys all have senior-level expertise in this area. As highly-trained professionals, former U.S. Attorneys, Assistant U.S. Attorneys, and more, we have previously been involved with the prosecution of fraud cases in the securities division.
We maintain a deep knowledge of the regulations and laws that govern the SEC enforcement jurisdiction. Our SEC compliance lawyers offer businesses practical and efficient advice that is tailored to each individual business in regard to all matters that are subject to oversight. This also includes:
Assisting clients in the preparations of the private placement memoranda and the private investments in public equity or PIPEs. We help our clients maintain compliance in all aspects for obtaining registration exemptions and for conducting private equity transactions.
Our SEC compliance lawyers consult regularly with the company founders, board members, and executives on a broad range of concerns. We not only assist companies with the development, implementation, and management of compliance programs, but we also offer ongoing recommendations as required. This includes the analysis of the following:
Maintaining effective SEC compliance for companies subject to federal securities laws and regulations is vital. The implementation of a custom-tailored and comprehensive program sets the stage and expectations for company-wide compliance.
It also allows the companies to demonstrate good-faith compliance efforts to the SEC when required. Based upon the guidance from the DOJ and the SEC, all of the needed elements of SEC compliance include, but aren’t limited to, the following:
The implementation of effective SEC compliance programs begins with the understanding of the specific compliance risks for the company. We conduct a confidential compliance risk assessment based upon an attorney-client privileged risk assessment that is focused on identifying the comprehensive scope of our client’s obligations to the SEC.
We begin with a documented commitment to compliance from the senior management team of the company. The SEC has expectations that companies will use a top-down approach in compliance.
We recommend the RIA Compliance University for all firms, whether you are both owner and CCO or have an in-house team that needs training and ongoing support. The Compliance University contains pre-recorded webinars that go over the compliance regulations and requirements for RIAs.
My RIA Lawyer will also provide you with resources (including forms, templates, and checklists) that you can use to ensure that you stay in compliance when creating documents. Our templates are up-to-date, which is essential for compliance.
Many people find that if they use non-attorney service providers to stay in compliance, they end up with outdated templates that no longer meet the guidelines. Then, they end up out of compliance, even when seeking outside help.
That’s one reason why enrolling in our Compliance University program is essential to your company’s success so you can keep up to date with the changes in the industry.
For more information about our Compliance University, click here.
If you need additional help with compliance, we recommend our compliance consulting services. You will receive one-on-one compliance consulting that covers compliance and how it affects the rest of your business.
Along with covering documents and forms, we will advise you on social media policy to ensure that you don’t break any state or federal guidelines while utilizing compliance technology to create efficiencies. We ensure that your compliance program is robust, meets state federal regulations, and keeps you out of the grip of the regulators.
Your My RIA Lawyer compliance team will conduct annual compliance reviews and help you make necessary changes to comply with guidelines. If anything is out of compliance, the attorney will help you make changes to comply with guidelines.
You can also add additional services, such as our SEC mock exam, a 4-stage process that will certify your compliance program and ensure your policies and procedures achieve compliance with SEC requirements. The packages also include unlimited access to our compliance team via email and telephone because we believe that we can best serve you when you aren’t spending time counting the number of billable hours you must pay.
All of our compliance services include customized tasks and forms delivered via an automated compliance calendar that we provide via a compliance technology called Smart RIA.
We recommend our Diamond Package using our Outsourced Compliance Department. We will provide a Chief Compliance Officer to ensure that your firm follows all rules and guidelines.
The CCO will assess the firm’s practices and find solutions to help you save time and money while following legal requirements. Benefits include outsourcing to a team of compliance officers and attorneys that are compliance nerds who focus solely on this vital area of your business.
You can reclaim your time to focus on revenue-generating activity while your outsourced provider cleans up your program and gets you SEC exam ready.
When you use an SEC compliance lawyer, you will benefit from attorney-client privilege. Everything you say to your attorney is protected under the rule of law. You will not get the same protection if you use a non-attorney service provider. Instead, the provider can divulge your conversations, which could get you in trouble. Between the protection and sound legal advice, hiring an attorney from My RIA Lawyer is a wise choice.
Making the jump to start your own firm is a big decision. Its stressful, hard work, and you have to learn a ton. This why I decided to hire a professional team to help establish my RIA the right way the first time. My RIA Lawyer’s team is absolutely amazing. They have demonstrated expert knowledge, personable staff, and they have shown us how much they genuinely care about setting us up for success by giving us the tools we need to help others. Thank you Leila and Liz for all of your hard work!
The initial consultation was extremely valuable. I definitely recommend speaking with them. I had very custom needs, and they rose to the task!
I worked with Leila as I was getting my new RIA firm up and running. Leila provided expert legal advice as a complement to the national compliance firm who was assisting me with my registration. I was introduced to Leila after I had already begun the process and not sure how I would have made it through without her. She was an invaluable resource and I look forward to working together again in the future!
I have used My RIA Lawyer for filing my Annual Amendments in the past and was very happy with their services and professionalism. Leila Shaver is very responsive, communicative, and extremely knowledgeable. I highly recommend their services!
Leila is an expert with compliance but she also offers a wealth of knowledge as a business owner. We discussed everything including compliance, marketing, business partnerships, and more. Even though my firm is not yet at a point to work with her, she has sent me multiple emails offering assistance with the things we spoke about during our meeting.
The attorneys at MyRIALawyer are always extremely attentive, responsive and competent. We look forward to expanding our relationship, as we continue to grow.
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“It’s important that you look at your legal provider and who it is you have invested in to protect your business, so there are a few things you should be asking your lawyer. First, do they know what the heck you’re doing? Do they know the services you provide? The fees you’re charging? Do they understand securities? One of the problems I see when there is a legal action or when there’s an enforcement action, is that so many of you are going to attorneys that have ZERO securities experience! You’re going to, God forbid, a general practitioner!! That’s not the kind of lawyer you want, you want a securities attorney! You want them to understand your business.“
— Leila Shaver Founder
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