RIA Compliance
Building and running the compliance program itself — the Advisers Act, Rule 206(4)-7, annual reviews, and the people and tools that keep an RIA compliant.
Every registered investment adviser operates under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 and its fiduciary duty, and Rule 206(4)-7 — the Compliance Rule — requires written policies and procedures, a designated chief compliance officer, and an annual review of the program's effectiveness. RIA compliance is the discipline of turning those obligations into a program that actually runs: policies people follow, evidence that gets kept, and reviews that catch problems before examiners do.
The articles in this topic cover the compliance program end to end — what the requirements are, how to structure and document the program, how to run the annual review, and when it makes sense to bring in outside help or software to carry the operational load.
All RIA Compliance articles
Investment Adviser Fiduciary Duty: Rules & Compliance
What the RIA fiduciary duty of care and loyalty require under the Advisers Act, and how a compliance program proves both, with SEC primary sources.
How Much Does RIA Compliance Software Cost? (2026)
Consultants run $8K-$15K a year, outsourced CCOs $30K-$125K, and no compliance software vendor publishes a list price. The four pricing models, explained.
Compliance Software for RIA Consultants (2026)
How consulting practices run multi-client RIA compliance on one platform: firm templates, task distribution, escalation queues, and documented recommendations.
Best RIA Compliance Software 2026: 8 Compared
Eight RIA compliance platforms compared for 2026: RegFin, COMPLY, Smartria, Hadrius, and more, with every mark sourced to the vendor's own site.
RIA Annual Compliance Review: 2026 Checklist and Guide
How to run and document the Rule 206(4)-7 annual compliance review: risk assessment, testing, findings, remediation, and what the 2024 vacatur changed.
AI Compliance Software for RIAs: 6 Tests to Run
How RIAs should evaluate AI compliance software: source citations, corpus currency, firm-policy grounding, audit trails, human-in-the-loop, and red flags.
RIA Compliance Consultant Costs & Services (2026)
What RIA compliance consultants cost in 2026: $8K-$15K/yr consulting retainers, $30K-$125K outsourced CCO, and when software covers the same ground.
The RIA Compliance Checklist (2026)
A CCO-ready RIA compliance checklist for 2026: annual review, Code of Ethics, books and records, Form ADV, Marketing Rule, custody, Reg S-P, and deadlines.
RIA Compliance: A Complete Guide for 2026
A CCO's guide to RIA compliance: the Advisers Act, Rule 206(4)-7, the Marketing Rule, Form ADV, books & records, custody, Reg S-P, and SEC exams.
What Is RIA Compliance? A Plain-English Primer
What RIA compliance means in plain English: the Advisers Act duties every registered investment adviser owes, who enforces them, and where to start.
RIA Compliance Requirements: What Firms Must Do
A CCO's guide to RIA compliance requirements: policies, annual review, Code of Ethics, Form ADV, the Marketing Rule, and the 2026 deadlines tying them together.
How AI Is Changing RIA Compliance: Real vs. Hype
Where AI earns its keep in RIA compliance: communication surveillance, regulatory research, document review. What's real, what's hype, what to ask vendors.
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