linkedFA Unveils Compliance Update for Brokerage Firms

linkedFA said the new feature automatically delivers daily reports of financial advisers’ activities to compliance officers and integrates into the firm’s internal e-mail capturing and monitoring software. The tool supports internal systems such as Orchestria, Assentor, Live Office, and Smarsh.

The feature addresses the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s (FINRA) rules about the supervision of electronic communications (see “FINRA Issues Guidance about Social Networking”).

linkedFA was introduced earlier this year and is essentially a social networking site just for advisers and their clients (see “Social Networking Site for Advisers Says It’s FINRA-Compliant”). The site claims to comply with FINRA-required compliance, supervision and recordkeeping, such as keeping all communication between advisers, peers, and investors for more than six years.

The updates are aimed to attract leading wirehouse and brokerage firms, who have been hesitant about allowing social media. 

“We radically modified our compliance feature at the request of leading brokerage firms, wirehouse firms, and IFAs,” said linkedFA President Jason Bishara, in a news release. “For several months now, we’ve been working closely with them to solve the issue of how to use social networking to grow their business while adhering to regulatory compliance rules around document retention and the review and supervision of electronic communications.”

In a recent interview with PLANADVISER, linkedFA CEO Brian Byrne said many brokerage firms realize social media is not going away and they have to figure out a way to deal with it. “Most investors are using social media and using the Internet to investigate personal finance,” he said. “[Firms] realize that they have to use social media to take control of the conversation.”