Upcoming ComplianceCast Focuses on Recent SEC Custody Guidance

Upcoming ComplianceCast Focuses on Recent SEC Custody Guidance

Ascendant’s ComplianceCast series returns on Friday, March 24 with a hot topic: recent SEC guidance on custody.

Last month, the Division of Investment Management issued a Guidance Update related to inadvertent custody of client funds or securities. The SEC also issued a long-awaited no-action letter that offered deeper clarity on the rule. ComplianceCast goes in depth on the topic, discussing all of the following:

The Impact on Thousands of Advisory Firms
Ways an Adviser May Inadvertently Have Custody
Practical Implications
Next Steps
More Surprise Examinations: Client Communications and Agreements

This ComplianceCast will address the complex topic, tackling practical implications of what circumstances now will constitute custody. New coverage of the following:

  • SLOAs (authority to transfer client money to a third party)
  • First Person Transfers (authority to transfer money to the same client)
  • Custodial Agreement Provisions with Advisory Clients (which impute advisers with custody)
  • Avoid Inadvertent Custody with Written Consent

Analyzing Recent SEC Guidance:

  • Investment Adviser Association No-Action Letter, February 21, 2017
  • IM Guidance Update February 2017, “Inadvertent Custody: Advisory Contract versus Custodial Contract Authority.”
  • FAQs, prior no-action letters

Next steps: Good-faith effort and timing; adapting policies and procedures, written consent and IMAs.
Bonus coverage of more industry questions.

The panelists for the webinar will be: Christopher Gilkerson, SVP & General Counsel, Charles Schwab & Co.; Laura L. Grossman, Assistant General Counsel, Investment Adviser Association; Robert E. Plaze, Partner, Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP; and Jacqueline Hallihan, Partner, Ascendant Compliance Management

To register for this ComplianceCast, click here and fill out the registration form.