Only For Established RIA's - Need a straight forward answer
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I am researching going indy and I keep hearing how much time compliance takes and how I don't want to spend the time bothering with this (usually from people, like my existing bd or new ones that don't want to see me go indy). The truth is I have no idea how much time or headache compliance will be. I have done a ton of research in the past year and half and have calculated the cost of going indy (E&O, custodian fees, software, initial setup/registration etc) but want an honest answer of what I would be up against compliance wise. Outside of having all my advertising and correspondence approved and having an annual mock site audit, what else can I expect? Hoping someone can tell me if this talk of compliance is a scare tactic or if it is legitimate. Thanks in advance.
A short answer is that the scare tactics are probably reasonably accurate if you establish your own RIA from scratch. If you go indy with a decent b/d, it is not that big of a deal. You have to keep track of more, but you have the existing structure of the b/d to help you along. The tradeoff is that you give up 10-15% of your gross to the b/d (but you'd have some fixed costs for RIA that you may not with a b/d).
They are all scare tactics.
Indy b/ds use scare tactics too to prevent people from going RIA.
Contact Fred at TradePMR. You won't find a more honest person to give you the scoop.
Thanks for the nice feedback. Yes, I would venture to say be mindful of who is providing the answers -- do they have an alterior motive running in the back of their mind? I would suggest speaking with a compliance consultant; an independent 3rd party person.
I question how beneficial would a B/D Firm Executive be when asked by a Registered Rep, "I'm thinking of going RIA -- can you help?" Perhaps some B/D's might answer this in a very honest fashion but some might, for fear of losing the Reps revenues, paint the RIA world in well, "less than a truthful light."
Do your homework so you can make an informed decision on your own.
Glad to help in any way I can.