SEC and state-registered advisers
RIA compliance software keeps a live register of the rules your firm answers to and tells you the day one of them changes. ComplianceOfficer reads SEC releases, FinCEN rules and state securities regulators at the source, maps each change to the policy it touches, and keeps the annual review evidence an examiner asks for. It costs $149 a month.
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Investment adviser, US · what a scan returns
The RIA compliance year
Most of an adviser's calendar is fixed by rule. What moves is everything around it: a new SEC rule, a delayed FinCEN date, a state that changes its notice filing. The fixed part looks like this.
Red marks are hard filing or delivery dates. Firms with a fiscal year other than December shift the Form ADV and brochure dates to match. ComplianceOfficer keeps these on one calendar and adds the ones that are not fixed, the day a regulator publishes them.
What changed for advisers
In force
A written incident response program, oversight of service providers, and notice to affected clients within 30 days of a breach of sensitive customer information. Larger advisers complied by December 3, 2025, smaller ones by June 3, 2026. The SEC says exams now test whether the program exists and works.
Delayed
The AML program and SAR filing rule for registered and exempt reporting advisers moved from January 1, 2026 to January 1, 2028, by a final rule published January 2, 2026. In April 2026 FinCEN also proposed a broader rewrite of AML program rules, so the version you implement may not be the one on the books today.
Exam focus
Never-examined and recently registered advisers get priority. Compliance program exams typically include an analysis of the annual review. Dual registrants, advisers using third parties to access client accounts, and advisers new to private funds are named as higher risk.
Standing rules
Rule 206(4)-1 has governed testimonials, endorsements and performance advertising since November 4, 2022. Rule 204-2 keeps most records for five years, the first two in an appropriate office. Neither changes often, which is why a quiet SEC FAQ update is easy to miss.
What the software does
Final rules, compliance date extensions, staff FAQs, risk alerts and state securities notices, read at the source.
Upload your compliance manual. When a rule moves, the section it touches is flagged and a revision is drafted for your review.
Form ADV, brochure delivery, code of ethics reports, IARD renewal and every new compliance date on the same page.
Every change you reviewed, accepted or rejected through the year is logged, so the annual review report writes itself from the record.
Append-only log of alerts, reviews and sign-offs, exportable to CSV for a document request letter.
Keep Smarsh or Global Relay for email and text capture. This covers the rulebook side they do not.
What it costs
None of the RIA-specific vendors publishes a price on its own site. These are the numbers that do exist, read on 30 September 2026. Vendr figures are signed contracts reported by buyers, not quotes.
| Vendor | Main job for an RIA | What is public about the price | Billed on |
|---|---|---|---|
| Smarsh | Communications capture, archiving, supervision | AWS Marketplace lists Cloud Capture at a $25,000 annual minimum platform fee. Vendr median $22,759 a year, range $3,288 to $131,276 | Platform fee plus a per-user, per-year SKU for each content type |
| Global Relay | Archiving and supervision | Vendr median $6,793 a year, range $975 to $7,800 | Quoted per user and channel |
| RIA in a Box (COMPLY) | Compliance calendar, code of ethics, consulting, cybersecurity | No list price. A custodian partner sheet offers 10% off the monthly per-user fee and a waived implementation fee | Monthly per user, plus service and implementation fees |
| ComplySci (COMPLY) | Personal trading and code of ethics | No list price; Vendr has a page but no recorded contracts | Quoted |
| Smartria | Compliance tasks, attestations, marketing review | "Customized pricing" by firm size, demo only | Quoted |
| ComplianceOfficer | Rule change tracking, policy gaps, annual review trail | $149 a month or $894 a year, published | Flat, per firm |
The Smarsh gap is worth reading closely. A $25,000 platform minimum on the enterprise listing sits above the Vendr median, which tells you the median is mostly smaller archive-only deals. If your quote carries a platform fee, ask which listing it came from. Registration itself costs little by comparison: the SEC's IARD fee for an annual updating amendment is $40, $150 or $225 depending on assets under management. For RIA in a Box specifically, see RIA in a Box cost, and for the wider GRC market, compliance software pricing.
Honest fit
Buy an archive for
Email, text and social capture
Rule 204-2 and the off-channel communications cases make this non-negotiable. Smarsh and Global Relay own it. We do not archive messages.
Buy a code of ethics tool for
Personal trading and pre-clearance
Brokerage feeds, restricted lists and quarterly reports for access persons. ComplySci and Smartria do this. We do not.
Buy ComplianceOfficer for
Knowing what changed and proving you acted
Rule changes mapped to your manual, a calendar that updates itself, and the annual review record. That is the part most small RIAs still run on newsletters and memory.
Who uses it
You manage money and hold the CCO title. The register tells you what changed this week in five minutes.
The SEC prioritizes exams of recently registered advisers. Start the audit trail on day one.
Form PF, custody and fee disclosure change on their own schedule. Track them next to the adviser rules.
FINRA and SEC obligations in one register, with the exam focus on conflicts built into the review.
Advisers that also carry banking or payments exposure can add those rulebooks to the same register, see financial services compliance software, and the AML side is covered on AML compliance software. Broker-dealer obligations under FINRA Rules 3110, 3120 and 3130 have their own page, broker dealer compliance software. Advisers whose clients are private funds carry Form PF and the custody audit on top, see hedge fund compliance software.
Questions advisers ask
It depends on which job you are buying for. Communications archiving and supervision is Smarsh or Global Relay territory. Code of ethics, personal trading and outsourced consulting is where COMPLY (RIA in a Box, ComplySci) and Smartria sit. Tracking what the SEC and your states change, and keeping your policies and annual review evidence current, is what ComplianceOfficer does for $149 a month.
Most RIA compliance vendors publish no price. Recorded contracts on Vendr, read 30 September 2026, put the median Smarsh deal at $22,759 a year and Global Relay at $6,793. Smarsh lists a $25,000 annual minimum platform fee for Cloud Capture on AWS Marketplace, before per-user fees. RIA in a Box charges a monthly per-user fee plus implementation. ComplianceOfficer costs $149 a month or $894 a year.
An SEC-registered adviser must adopt written compliance policies and procedures, name a chief compliance officer and review the program at least annually under Rule 206(4)-7. It also needs a code of ethics with personal trading reports under Rule 204A-1, books and records under Rule 204-2, a Form ADV annual amendment within 90 days of fiscal year end, Marketing Rule controls and Regulation S-P safeguards.
RIA compliance software keeps an adviser's compliance program running between exams: a calendar of filing and reporting dates, tracking of SEC and state rule changes, policy and procedure management, code of ethics workflows, communications archiving and a record of reviews and sign-offs. Most vendors cover two or three of these jobs, not all of them.
At least once a year. Rule 206(4)-7 requires an annual review of the adequacy and effectiveness of the adviser's policies and procedures. The SEC's fiscal year 2026 examination priorities say exams of compliance programs typically include an analysis of that annual review, so the written record of what you reviewed and changed matters.
Yes. The 2024 amendments to Regulation S-P apply to SEC-registered investment advisers, broker-dealers and investment companies. They require a written incident response program and notice to affected individuals within 30 days. Larger entities had to comply by December 3, 2025 and smaller entities by June 3, 2026.
January 1, 2028. FinCEN published a final rule on January 2, 2026 that moved the effective date of its anti-money laundering program and suspicious activity report rule for registered investment advisers and exempt reporting advisers from January 1, 2026 to January 1, 2028, and said it would revisit the rule's scope in the meantime.
One register for your firm, watched daily, for $149 a month. How the watch works is on regulatory change management software, and the policy side on policy management software.