capital-markets-asset-management-compliance

Produces the substantive readiness pack an SEC-registered investment adviser, broker-dealer, dual registrant, fund adviser, or private-fund adviser carries through an SEC Division of Examinations or FINRA examination cycle. Walks the firm through Form ADV / Form CRS / Form BD cross-check, the Rule 206(4)-7 written compliance program, the Rule 204A-1 code of ethics lane, the Rule 206(4)-2 custody lane, the Rule 206(4)-1 Marketing Rule lane, Rule 204-2 books-and-records, Form PF (Rule 204(b)-1) where applicable, Reg BI and Form CRS for BDs and dual registrants, FINRA 3110 / 3120 / 3130 / 3310 supervision, and the cyber / Reg S-P slice that EXAMS now reaches for routinely. Audience is the chief compliance officer, the chief executive officer, general counsel, the designated FINRA supervisor for a BD or dual registrant, the BSA officer where AML is in scope, and the firm's external counsel. Best for: - An adviser, BD, or dual registrant has been notified of an SEC EXAMS routine, focused, for-cause, or sweep examination and needs a 2-6 week readiness sprint with a gap matrix, evidence index, mock-interview prep, and remediation list. - A CCO is preparing the annual mock-exam exercise as part of the Rule 206(4)-7 / Rule 38a-1 / FINRA Rule 3110 / 3130 review cycle. - A new CCO is doing a 90-day baseline assessment of the compliance program against current EXAMS priorities and Risk Alerts. - A consulting team is performing a pre-exam diagnostic for an adviser or BD client and needs the SEC-specific readiness lattice (not the generic exam-engagement playbook). - A private-fund adviser is reading the firm's posture against the post-PFA-Rule landscape (the PFA Rule was vacated June 5, 2024 and is not in force) and the operative Form PF 2023 / 2024 amendments (which remain in force as a separate rulemaking). - A registered-fund adviser is feeding readiness evidence into the Rule 38a-1 CCO annual report cycle for the fund board. Not the right tool when: - The work is the engagement-side scaffolding (entry-meeting choreography, document-handling, privilege posture, request-list mapping, interview-prep) for any FS exam. Use `regulatory-change-management/skills/exam-brief`; this skill chains with that skill, it does not duplicate it. - The work is mapping a specific new rule into firm policy (use `regulatory-change-management/regulatory-impact-assessment` or `rule-to-obligation-extraction`). - The work is the substantive Marketing Rule evidence pack itself (use `marketing-rule-evidence` in this plugin; this skill consumes that pack as an evidence pin). - The work is fund-board reporting or the §15(c) advisory-contract approval / renewal package (use `fund-board-reporting`). - The institution is a US bank, a non-bank consumer-finance entity, an insurer, or a payments/fintech firm not also SEC- or FINRA-registered. Use the matching sector-plugin readiness skill.

Drafts the periodic best-execution surveillance review for an investment adviser, broker-dealer, dual registrant, or fund adviser. Carries trade-by-trade exception sampling, aggregate venue and counterparty execution-quality metrics, factor analysis under the applicable rule lattice, Rule 605 / 606 reconciliation where applicable, conflict-as-input review (PFOF, principal trades, agency crosses, affiliated brokerage, soft dollars, commission-sharing arrangements), and the best-execution committee escalation pack. Output is the reviewable artifact a best-ex committee, a CCO, a fund board's §15(c) materials, or a SEC IM / FINRA exam file consumes. Best for: - A registered investment adviser is performing its quarterly or annual best-execution review and the second line owns the artifact. - A broker-dealer is performing its FINRA Rule 5310 regular-and-rigorous review of execution quality across venues for retail or institutional flow. - A fund's adviser is preparing the brokerage and best-execution section of the §15(c) board materials, including affiliated-brokerage and soft-dollar review. - A second-line reviewer is sampling trade exceptions (off-NBBO fills, price-improvement misses, large-block routing decisions, principal-trade pricing, agency-cross fairness, conflicted-routing flow) for a periodic surveillance write-up. Not the right tool when: - The objective is real-time order-routing technology selection or vendor selection (use `third-party-operational-resilience/vendor-diligence` with the capital-markets overlay). - The objective is exam-readiness sprint or written-policy gap review (use `adviser-exam-readiness` or `risk-compliance-core/policy-gap-review`). - The objective is to build a TCA model. This skill consumes TCA outputs; it does not build them. - The fund-adviser variant has produced this surveillance and the next step is the full fund-board pack assembly (use `fund-board-reporting`). - The institution does not owe a US fiduciary, FINRA, or SEC best-execution duty.

Assembles the periodic compliance and risk pack delivered to the board of a registered investment company (mutual fund, ETF, closed-end fund, BDC) and its independent trustees. The pack covers the chief compliance officer's annual written report on the fund and service-provider compliance programs, the advisory contract approval and renewal package built on the §15(c) factor analysis, the standing compliance and risk reporting cadence (material compliance matters, valuation oversight, liquidity program reporting, derivatives risk reporting, affiliated-transactions and soft-dollar / brokerage disclosures), and the per-service-provider compliance program assessment for the adviser, sub-advisers, transfer agent, custodian, fund accountant, distributor, principal underwriter, valuation designee, and pricing services. The deliverable is a board-presentation deck plus a Word annex carrying the §15(c) and Rule 38a-1 written content the board minutes record consumes. Best for: - A fund chief compliance officer is preparing the annual Rule 38a-1(a)(4)(iii) written report to the board on the operation of the fund's and each service provider's compliance program, including any material compliance matters and material policy changes since the prior report. - A fund secretary or fund-administration compliance team is preparing the standing quarterly compliance section of the board pack, with the material compliance matters log, the service-provider compliance summary, and the affiliated-transactions and soft-dollar disclosures. - An adviser is preparing the §15(c) advisory-contract renewal materials covering the Gartenberg / Jones v. Harris factors (nature, extent, and quality of services; investment performance; profitability; economies of scale; fall-out benefits; comparative fees and expenses) for the independent trustees' deliberation. - A fund board secretariat is assembling the per-cycle pack covering material compliance matters, valuation prompt-notification events under Rule 2a-5, liquidity classification changes and breaches under Rule 22e-4, derivatives VaR utilization and breaches under Rule 18f-4, and affiliated-transaction activity under §17 / Rule 17e-1 / Rule 17a-7. Not the right tool when: - The institution is not a registered investment company. Private fund advisers and adviser-firm-level enterprise risk reporting use `risk-reporting/risk-committee-pack` with the capital-markets sector overlay. - The deliverable is the adviser's enterprise risk committee pack covering firm-wide investment risk, fiduciary risk, vendor risk, and BD net-capital content for dual-registrant firms (use `risk-reporting/risk-committee-pack`). - The deliverable is a single material-compliance-matter write-up (use `risk-compliance-core/issue-writeup`). - The deliverable is the adviser's Rule 206(4)-7 annual review of its own compliance program (use `risk-compliance-core/policy-gap-review` chained with `adviser-exam-readiness` in this plugin). - The deliverable is best-execution surveillance content for the best-ex committee or for the §206 / FINRA 5310 review (use `best-execution-surveillance` in this plugin); brokerage-quality content cross-links into this pack but the surveillance itself lives elsewhere. - The deliverable is Rule 206(4)-1 marketing-rule evidence and substantiation (use `marketing-rule-evidence` in this plugin); material marketing-rule findings affecting the fund land in this pack as part of the §38a-1 service-provider compliance program assessment for the adviser.

Builds a Marketing Rule evidence and substantiation pack for one piece of SEC-registered investment-adviser advertising. Per-advertisement, per-claim review: classify the statement (advertisement, performance presentation, hypothetical, predecessor, related, extracted, model, testimonial, endorsement, third-party rating); map required disclosures by statement type; record the substantiation file claim by claim; run the testimonial / endorsement and third-party-rating compliance checklists; apply the hypothetical-performance pre-conditions; assemble the books-and-records evidence index. The pack is the input to the CCO or designated reviewer's pre-dissemination sign-off; it does not approve dissemination, finalize antifraud determinations, or replace counsel review. Best for: - Pre-dissemination review of one piece of adviser marketing (pitch deck, fact sheet, website page, RFP response, social post, recorded webinar, podcast script) before the CCO or designated reviewer signs off. - Periodic look-back on adviser advertising as part of the annual Rule 206(4)-7 compliance program review, where sampled ads need their evidence files reconstructed. - Response to a Division of Examinations document request that calls for marketing materials, performance computations, substantiation, disclosures, and the books-and-records artifact under Rule 204-2(a)(11) and (a)(15)-(16). - The advertisement contains hypothetical performance, predecessor performance, related performance, model performance, extracted performance, testimonials, endorsements, or third-party ratings, where Rule 206(4)-1 imposes specific pre-conditions and required disclosures. Not the right tool when: - The artifact is not adviser advertising under Rule 206(4)-1 (broker-dealer communications under FINRA Rule 2210; registered fund prospectuses or supplemental sales literature under Rule 482 and Rule 156; account statements; one-on-one tax discussions excluded from the advertisement definition). - The objective is to draft new marketing copy. This skill reviews and substantiates existing copy; it does not write the ad. - The objective is overall compliance program design or annual rule-review scope-setting (use `risk-compliance-core/policy-gap-review` or `adviser-exam-readiness` in this plugin). - The doctrinal lane is consumer-financial UDAAP under Dodd-Frank §1031 (use `consumer-compliance-fair-lending/marketing-claim-review`; Marketing Rule lives in the Advisers Act §206 antifraud lane, not UDAAP).