Hortz: What other compliance areas should advisors be proactively looking at and preparing for due to the current environment we are in?
Bartine: The SEC is concerned that business continuity plans are being maintained, tested, and updated during the pandemic, and that firms are documenting those efforts. There is nothing like a good crisis to remind regulators of the importance of business continuity, and they have been reminding advisors of that in turn.
Specifically, many advisors didn’t think to address a pandemic or civil unrest in their business continuity plan. Why would they? Well, now we have very good reasons to think about it. If compliance teams are not responding accordingly with updated plans, that is going to be called out in an exam.
Hortz: Any last words or advice you can offer advisors on how to meet some of these challenges brought on by COVID-19?
Bartine: First piece of advice: Do not be in this alone. If you don’t have a good relationship with a compliance consultant or attorney, get one.
Second: Use technology to your advantage. Obviously, I believe SmartRIA’s compliance software is pretty fantastic, but you have several options and you should definitely be using one. Great tech speeds up compliance workflows, points out deficiencies for your compliance team to remediate, and can even be a strategic advantage for helping your firm grow.
Third and most important — I cannot say this enough — document everything.
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