Fostering an Environment of Compliance

Written by: Marty Shields

Bouchey Financial Group is a Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) and consequently we are regulated by the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC).  Approximately every 10 – 15 years the SEC audits the records and processes of the firms that it regulates.  Our last audit was conducted in 2001 and this summer we got the call that we were going to be audited.  This process with the SEC lasted three months, as they reviewed the majority of our operations and records to make sure appropriate requirements were being met.  Our firm came through the audit very strong, with only minor recommendations from the SEC on ways we could improve our processes, records, and manuals.

Our firm has always promoted an environment of compliance and we have taken the approach that we can always find ways to improve our business and better protect our clients.   Recently, we implemented a cybersecurity program that reviewed all of our systems and software.  The purpose of this was to identify any potential threats and we are currently implementing measures to protect against these threats.

Before engaging the services of any investment advisory firm, it is imperative to review their regulatory documents to make sure they do not have any past violations and to understand how they operate their business.  For RIAs like our firm, most of this information can be found in a firm’s ADV which is filed with the SEC and for a broker, this information can be found at FINRA.org.