RIA Compliance Blog
Last week the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) released updated guidance to the disciplinary disclosures section of Form CRS. The purpose of Form CRS is to provide a succinct summary of the business of the Investment Adviser or Broker-Dealer to provide a retail investor with the proper information to make an informed decision regarding whether an investment advisory or brokerage relationship is in the best interest of the investor. Form CRS also provides a platform to generate questions for clients to ask their financial professional to spark a conversation regarding the disclosures. Likewise, the purpose of the disciplinary section of the Form CRS is to give an overall indication as to whether the firm or its financial professionals have disciplinary history to disclose.
The SEC and FINRA place a high level of importance on ensuring that firms adequately disclose their disciplinary history to provide full and accurate disclosure to retail investors. Since June 30, 2020, the required implementation date of Form CRS, the SEC and FINRA have examined investment advisers to determine compliance with the guidance regarding Form CRS and Regulation BI. In its examinations, the regulators determined that many investment advisory and brokerage firms were either not providing a response to the disciplinary section or providing more details than the section’s instructions require. The following are summaries of the updated guidance on Form CRS disciplinary disclosures: