New Year, New Risks - Support Solutions for CCOs in 2019

As the government shutdown continues and uncertainty abounds, firms may be at a greater risk. In a recent article by Investment News, it was reported that investment fraud is on the rise,​ and with the SEC’s current skeleton crew, they simply can't do their essential job: protecting investors and markets. This unfortunately opens the door to bad actors and puts firms at increased risk.

But the government shutdown isn’t the only thing CCOs have to contend with this year. Volatile market conditions in the second half of 2018 and slow economic growth have created a difficult environment for Investment Advisers. Smaller budgets, waning staff, and increased responsibilities all come to a head and can make it difficult to maintain day-to-day operational compliance needs.

At the beginning of the year firms often experience a need for additional support or staffing as a result of:

• Organizational changes and /or layoffs
• Budgetary Pressures
• Departures following year-end bonuses
• Increased responsibility due to new regulations
• Increased risk due to current political climate

While dealing with these challenges, it’s important to ensure your resources are aligned with your responsibilities may be beneficial to call in extra help. Outsourcing compliance tasks, gaining staffing support, and engaging outside parties in the secondment role are a few helpful ways to lighten the load while gaining access into objective insight into peer group concerns.

How ACA Can Help

ACA’s Staffing Support Solutions allows clients to gain exposure to peer group best practices, involve little to no ramp up, and shift the risks and costs to recruit, retain, and oversee to ACA. ACA’s Staffing Support Solutions provide a scalable option, allowing clients to control the variable cost. The level of support provided can be dialed-up or down with the snap of a finger and no internal costs involved such as terminating or hiring.

Download our list of services and case studies here to learn more about how you can leverage our staffing support solutions.

Additionally, our team can support your firm with many ongoing compliance tasks such as:

• Compliance testing and assistance with the annual compliance review
• Routine monitoring and surveillance, including:
• Personal account dealing
• Email and instant messaging communications
• Trading surveillance
• Secondment assistance including short or long term loaning of compliance professionals
• Year-end filings with the SEC, FINRA, CFTC, and NFA
• Regulatory filing support
• Review of your policies and procedures
• And more.

For More Information

Contact Sean McKeveny if you’d like to learn more.

About the Author

Sean McKeveny rejoined ACA in September 2014 to support the launch of ACA’s Analysis and Review Center (“ARC”) in Pittsburgh. Sean had previously worked as a Compliance Analyst in ACA’s Morristown, New Jersey office. After spending three and a half years in Pittsburgh, Sean returned to Morristown, where, as a Principal Consultant, he oversees select ARC projects, provides support during mock exams, and serves as a practice specialist supporting sales and business development initiatives for ACA’s business process outsourcing segment. Sean earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management (summa cum laude) from the University of Scranton. He also holds the Claritas Investment Certification issued by the CFA Institute and a graduate certification in Strategic Decision and Risk Management from Stanford University.