The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that five investment advisors have agreed to pay $500,000 in combined penalties to settle charges they failed to comply with custody rules designed to prevent the loss or misuse of clients’ assets by wealth managers.

The firms, which all advise private funds, are charged with failing to have audits of their custody procedures; deliver audited financials to investors in a timely manner and ensure a qualified custodian maintains client assets, the agency said in a statement.

Without admitting or denying the findings, the firms agreed to be censured, to cease and desist from violating rules and will pay from $50,000 to $225,000 in penalties for failing to safekeep client assets, the SEC said.

The advisory firms are Lloyd George Management (HK) Limited of Sheung Wan, Hong Kong; Bluestone Capital Management LLC of Wayne, Pa.; the Eideard Group LLC of Bedford, N.H.; Disruptive Technology Advisers LLC of Austin, Texas; and Apex Financial Advisors Inc. of Yardley, Pa.

“The Custody Rule and the associated Form ADV reporting obligations are core to investor protection,” said Andrew Dean, co-chief of the SEC Enforcement Division’s Asset Management Unit. “We will continue to ensure that private fund advisers meet their obligations to secure client assets.”

Two of the firms also failed to file amended ADVs to reflect they had received audited financial statements, and one did not properly describe the status of its financial statement audits for multiple years when filing Form ADV, the SEC said in a statement.

This is the second set of charges the SEC has brought as part of a targeted sweep concerning violations of the custody rule.

In September, the agency charged nine RIAs with violating asset safekeeping. The firms settled the allegations without admitting or denying guilt for $1 million in penalties.

As the industry mulls the crackdown, it has also been given more time to analyze the SEC’s proposed 434-page expansion of its custody rule, which has already been the subject of criticism.

The agency announced August 23 that it's giving the public roughly two more months to comment on its February proposal, which would extend the requirements for the safekeeping of cash, stocks and bonds to more sophisticated investment vehicles such as cryptocurrencies, real estate and derivatives.