The Advisor Products Compliance Engine is an integrated website compliance system for broker/dealers and financial advisors.
Advisors get a Content Management System—the Advisor Products BackOffice—that enables them to add content to their websites. Advisors can use the BackOffice to add text, photos, graphics, links, and different types of pages to their websites—without knowing anything about HTML.
The Advisor Products BackOffice that advisors utilize is integrated with Advisor Products Compliance Engine. The compliance engine makes it easy for compliance analysts to review, track, and retrieve any advertising by reps using their websites. Workflow used by a compliance department is designed into the compliance engine.
Whenever advisors change any content on their website, the compliance analyst is automatically notified by email that new content is ready to be reviewed. The compliance analyst logs into a password-protected website to access the Compliance Engine, where a link to newly submitted content awaiting review is displayed.
The compliance analyst can approve, reject, or edit the advisor’s submission. If the compliance analyst approves the content, it “goes live” on the advisor’s website. If the submission is rejected, the advisor is sent an email telling him or her that the submission not was approved.
Features Of The Broker/Dealer Compliance Tool
Advertising Compliance Review Notes. Compliance analysts can attach notes to a website content submission by an advisor to tell the advisor what must be corrected to gain approval of rejected content. All submissions and notes are archived by the Advisor Products Compliance Engine for seven years. Attaching notes to submissions can sharply reduce the time it takes your compliance department to review advisor website contents.
Advertising Compliance Reference Numbers. Another time saving feature of the compliance engine is its automated reference numbering. Whenever a website content submission is approved by a compliance analyst, it is automatically assigned a reference number. If the approved content is reused or repurposed with some minor changes, the original number assigned the submission can be referenced later. The compliance analysts can in seconds locate the previously approved submission, leveraging the work they’ve already done to approve previous submissions. Being able quickly reference boilerplate language sharply increases the efficiency of your compliance team.
Advertising Compliance Tags. Compliance analysts can also “Tag” website content submissions made by advisors. Tagging makes it easy to find previously approved submissions. A compliance analyst can tag a submission about mutual funds, performance, limited partnerships, annuities, or other sensitive topics. This makes it easy for your to retrieve all references to those topics in the event of an audit by a regulatory agency. It also makes it easy for your analysts to retrieve boilerplate disclosures or approved marketing copy.
Website Archiving. Another useful feature is the Compliance Snapshot Tool. A PDF snapshot of each submission is automatically created when it is approved or rejected. The snapshot is available for download anytime. Your advertising compliance department can also download an archive of an entire website in a date- and time-stamped zip file.
If a website is not compliant or if a rep is inactive, a compliance analyst can hide the entire site from public view and re-launch the site anytime with the click of a mouse.
FINRA-Reviewed Articles And Content. Advisor Products offers a database comprised of hundreds of FINRA-reviewed news articles and other content about wealth management. Your compliance team or advisors can view and download the letters showing that a story was reviewed by FINRA. In addition, a compliance analyst can easily select all of the articles that will be made available for display on advisor websites, giving broker/dealers enormous control over content distributed by advisors.
Registered Investment Adviser Compliance. The Advisor Products article database can be used by advisors to send email newsletters. The email newsletter is integrated with the AdvisorSites Compliance Engine, enabling a compliance department to review email newsletter content available to advisors.
The compliance tools offered by Advisor Products can also be utilized by the Chief Compliance Officer at a Registered Investment Adviser that is regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission or by state securities regulators to monitor compliance by Investment Adviser reps with advertising rules.
Advisor Products is dedicated to enabling effective and compliant communications by independent advisors. Our tools for monitoring and reviewing financial advisor websites promote efficiency for broker/dealer regulatory compliance departments.