The Massachusetts Securities Division recently sent out a survey to track use of social media by investment advisory firms for business purposes. The survey not only asked about social media use but asked whether investment advisory firms have supervisory policies and procedures in place for social media supervision and record retention.
The results of the survey showed that 44% of investment advisers currently use social media for business purposes and that 10% of the advisers who do not currently use social media plan to start using it within the next 12 months. More importantly, the results showed that many of the investment advisers currently using social media do not have the proper policies and procedures in place. As a result of this survey, the Massachusetts Securities Division “believes that additional regulatory guidance concerning the use of social media would be appropriate” and is forming a “Working Group” to develop social media compliance guidelines for investment advisors.
To comply with current regulatory requirements, investment advisors who use social media need to have policies and procedures in place for employee supervision and record retention of content posted online through social media sites. On Thursday, October 13, 2011, RIA Compliance Consultants will be conducting a webinar, “Compliance for Social Media Sites.” During this webinar we will be discussing the current regulatory requirements related to social media use and how to develop policies and procedures to comply with these requirements. You can purchase a seat for $59.95 for this webinar by clicking here.
Posted by Bryan Hill
Labels: Compliance Violations, Record Keeping, Social Media
