Many financial advisors are still confused about how to remain compliant in their marketing efforts — despite the fact that the SEC’s last round of well overdue reforms to its marketing rule went into effect in late 2022.
As with any regulatory shift, an adjustment period is to be expected. My advice to advisors is to ask themselves: “Is this communication in the best interest of my client?”
Michelle Borkowski, senior marketing director at F2 Strategy
Advisors should rely on the basic ethics and common sense they already apply in their practices. Another piece of advice I offer advisor clients is: “Stop saying what you think your clients want to hear, and start saying what they need to hear.” This reframe is an excellent starting point for those who feel challenged about complying with the marketing rule updates.
READ MORE: Amid confusion, a blueprint for the SEC’s new marketing rule
Here are five key tips to help advisors market effectively while staying compliant for the benefit of their clients and their practices.
Engage with compliance early and often
Even with the best of intentions, bypassing the compliance department in an effort to expedite sharing something with a client does both the client and the advisor’s brand an injustice.
To yield the best result, advisors should involve compliance at the beginning of any marketing or communications initiative. If an advisor designs a marketing plan and begins executing on it before engaging a compliance officer, it can compromise efficiency — especially if the deliverable requires significant changes.
If compliance doesn’t get upfront insight into the context behind a given project, or is rushed at the back end, it may not be able to provide a thorough review. Under such circumstances, a compliance department is, understandably, more likely to err on the side of caution, possibly rejecting certain language or tactics they feel uncomfortable with. That’s not to mention the time and money potentially wasted on marketing efforts that can’t be executed because of compliance restrictions the advisor was unaware of.
On the flip side, if compliance professionals are involved from the beginning and have ample time to collaborate with the marketing team and perform adequate due diligence, they are more likely to engage with FINRA or other sources as necessary to deliver a more satisfactory result.
Create inclusive content for all learning styles and abilities
I have seen advisors get dinged for not being in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) when it comes to web accessibility. This can happen when advisors are new to the profession or when experienced advisors fail to update their long-standing websites or marketing materials.
Complying with ADA regulations ensures that advisors are adequately serving all types of differently abled clients, from those with varying learning styles to those with visibility or other accessibility needs.
Failing to meet clients where they are in terms of differing abilities can exclude them and potentially lead to legal troubles. To mitigate these risks, there are many AI programs that can evaluate and offer remediation for websites, marketing assets and other practices to shore up compliance. When producing marketing materials, a good rule of thumb is to consider the diverse ways in which your audience learns and consumes information.
Tread lightly with AI content and images
As indicated above, the use of artificial intelligence tools to support advisor workflows is growing in popularity. While this is not a bad thing, it’s important for advisors to be intentional about how they use AI in marketing content creation.
Anything advisors share with their audience that feels inauthentic is very likely to result in a loss. And because AI is not human, leaning on it to produce language, imagery and other content may result in material that feels insincere.
Any AI-generated content should be proofread and edited with a critical eye, and by a real person, to make sure it adheres to the firm’s brand, voice and compliance standards. It’s also important that clients sense the “voice” of their trusted advisor in anything produced by AI, so it’s important to edit content to match your personal style.
In my view, AI tools function much better as writing and content creation assistants than as generators of original content. Ideally, AI should be doing the grunt work, allowing the advisor to focus on driving the creative process, because it takes a human mind to make truly powerful creative art.
READ MORE: Will smooth-talking AI avatars replace human advisors?
Develop preapproved content and image libraries
Putting in the effort to create a batch of content that can be scheduled across a three- to six-month period will exact a time investment upfront but will ultimately streamline your marketing efforts. This can include curating an image library consistent with firm branding and compliant with ADA regulations, as well as written and video content.
For example, an advisor might want to create a content series on education savings targeted at grandparents who want to contribute to their grandchildren’s college funds. They could then take that knowledge and form a committee of the appropriate content development people (including a compliance person, of course!) to build out a series of supporting content pieces to schedule for promotion ahead of time.
This approach streamlines marketing and compliance efforts by allowing the full team to collaboratively focus on the entire campaign, deploying it once and reaping the benefits of pre-scheduling.
Engage industry-savvy partners who speak compliance
Finally, advisors can potentially save themselves a great deal of time, money and heartache by carefully choosing third-party partners who already understand the wealth management industry and are up to speed on specific regulatory requirements. By choosing partners who are not only well versed in the world of wealth management but also proactive in remaining apprised of any regulatory changes, advisors can set themselves up for greater success.
