Industry regulations tend to feel like one sea change after another.
In recent years, we’ve had the failed Department of Labor rule, then Regulation Best Interest, and now the new SEC Marketing Rule. Now, the SEC is proposing more oversight rules for outsourcing certain types of services.
With wave after wave of changes, advisors can struggle to keep their heads above water. If anything is certain, it’s that compliance reporting for advisors will continue to change.
No matter if you’re a multi-advisor RIA or an institutional firm of thousands, you need a fintech — or, RegTech, if you will — software solution to help automate regulatory reporting and stay on top of current and new regulations.
The Digital Transformation of Financial Services
Digital transformation in financial services has drastically increased the speed of change.
Before, going digital meant allowing clients to download forms instead of sending them in the mail. Now, the entire client onboarding process, including those form fills, takes place digitally. Quick change necessitates quicker adaptation.
Meetings are booked and conducted in a completely virtual environment. You may go months or years without seeing a client face-to-face.
Marketing and prospecting has gone digital too. No more days of handing out your business card at the monthly civic meeting hoping for a new bite. No more snail mail campaigns that cost tons in postage and never came with any analytics. Now, advisors can find clients through social media instead.
But even with the entire lifecycle of a client now in a digital environment, there is often a glaring hole in digital transformation for advisors: compliance technology.
Top 2 Ways Successful Advisory Firms Leverage RegTech to Solve Compliance Issues
Not only is the regulation landscape constantly shifting, but the regulations can vary by firm or business model. So the right RegTech solution needs to solve for two main compliance needs:
- Provide greater visibility into a client’s account. This will allow them to perform supervisory and compliance reviews more easily and collaborate with advisors and support staff.
- Allow compliance teams to leverage RegTech in order to deliver a better day-to-day experience for principals, advisors, and support staff. This can also help drivescale and reduce total cost of ownership.
Ultimately, firms should automate regulatory oversight and reporting needs in order to meet these needs. And the most effective way to do that is to have a cloud-based RegTech solution.
Cloud-Based RegTech Leads with Automation
Financial firms of all sizes benefit from a cloud-based, highly configurable RegTech solution. Tools that offer automated workflows and rules drive improved efficiency.
With workflows powered by a robust rules-based engine, firms can outline approval and exception procedures based on company policies—and adapt as regulations change or the business grows.
Cloud-based RegTech provides full visibility to household, client, and account information. No more jumping from system to system to review trades and accounts. With full account transparency, advisors can grab data from multiple sources to build in-depth reports that can be saved and used again and again.
Staying aware of changing regulations is one thing, but your solution must also stay current. On-premise systems have a tendency to never get updated or at least fall behind. Cloud-based RegTech will grow with you. Making adjustments when you need to means staying ahead of compliance reporting requirements.
Stay Ahead of WealthTech Trends
The WealthTech landscape is constantly evolving. Make sure you have the tools inside your firm to navigate anything that comes your way.
Our latest Industry Insights offers a look at how Skience Surveillance can help create a better compliance experience. Download it now to learn more about how Skience can complete your RegTech needs.