10 Action Areas For CCOs

On October 15, Andrew J. "Buddy" Donohue, Chief of Staff at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, put Chief Compliance Officers at Registered Investment Advisers on notice by ticking off nine specific things CCOs need to nail down.

"If I were a Chief Compliance Officer," said Donohue, a regulator and financial industry executive for nearly 40 years, "I would consider my role in terms of the following categories:"

     • Laws, Regulations and other Requirements

     • Organization and Operations of the Firm

     • Conflicts of Interest

     • Clients of the Firm

     • Compliance and Other Systems

     • Policies and Procedures

     • Markets and Business Practices

     • Culture of the Firm

     • What DON'T I know?

At this session, compliance operations consultants, Chris Winn and Conor Anderson of AdvisorAssist translate Donoghue's nine things into 10 action areas for CCOs:

1. Regulatory requirements
2. Firm organization and operations
3. Identifying potential conflicts of interest
4. Knowing the firm's clients
5. IT compliance and firm-wide systems
6. Firm policies and procedures, not boilerplate
7. Forensic testing to "prove" systems work
8. Market and business practice awareness
9. Culture of the firm
10. When you're a "Jack of all trades"

Chris Winn is founder of AdvisorAssist, a Boston-based management consulting firm serving investment advisory firms exclusively. AdvisorAssist manages start-up and transition supports compliance, practice management and technology for SEC and state registered investment advisers and broker-dealers. Registration, strategy, transition management, vendor selection, incubation, and compliance program design are among AdvisorAssist areas of strength.

This webinar is eligible for IMCA^® CE credit.