Hortz: How does RIA compliance technology create enterprise value?
Bartine: If you are a firm looking to grow, you need to be thinking about compliance. It is not just about avoiding fines or legal trouble—it is about creating value for your company.
There are many ways compliance creates value. As I mentioned, creating greater efficiency and reducing stress for your revenue-generating employees is incredibly valuable. It also is critical for catching the dropped balls that people, without a comprehensive compliance tech solution, can easily miss. The more firms grow without entrenched compliance tech, the more likely our increasingly complex regulatory environment is to catch them off guard. Another value that firms with compliance tech get is it removes risk concerns for possible acquirers: proof of a strong compliance management program already in place is valuable to potential future buyers.
Hortz: Can you give us some examples of what you mean by your tagline "Software as a Partnership®"?
Bartine: Compliance is not a static problem; it is a moving target. As compliance changes, RIAs need software from a company actively partnering to create solutions that evolve with the changing environment. That partnership between the software company and the customer is what Smartria's “Software as a Partnership” service is all about. It helps our customers focus on what is most important: growing their business.
Hortz: Why did your recent new enterprise clients, Dynasty Financial and Market Counsel, decide to not just choose you as a compliance solution but also to become both strategic partners and investors in your firm and compliance platform?
Bartine: I cannot speak for either firm, but I believe it is about our vision and mission. We envision a world where every company takes compliance management seriously, so we are building software to help them do just that. It is a big problem, so that is an exciting goal that people can get behind. When people see what we have built and hear about our vision for the future, that excitement translates into good things for our company.
Hortz: Any best advice or recommendations you can offer mid-to-large enterprise firms on strengthening their regulatory compliance readiness?
Bartine: Solve your most crucial compliance challenges with a single platform that integrates with other solutions you are using, so it is easy to pull in data for compliance workflows. Look for solutions that apply continuous analytics to the imported data and actions taken inside the platform and use that analysis to clarify what problems you need to address next.
The Institute for Innovation Development is an educational and business development catalyst for growth-oriented financial advisors and financial services firms determined to lead their businesses in an operating environment of accelerating business and cultural change. We operate as a business innovation platform and educational resource with FinTech and financial services firm members to openly share their unique perspectives and activities. The goal is to build awareness and stimulate open thought leadership discussions on new or evolving industry approaches and thinking to facilitate next-generation growth, differentiation and unique community engagement strategies. The institute was launched with the support and foresight of our founding sponsors—Ultimus Fund Solutions, NASDAQ, FLX Networks, Advisorpedia, Pershing, Fidelity, Voya Financial and Charter Financial Publishing (publisher of Financial Advisor and Private Wealth magazines).