Why You Should Not Register Yourself

Registering yourself would seem simple; it only entails filling out some forms and maybe jumping through a few hoops with the SEC or State. Right?

It’s A Long Lonely Road

Registering your RIA is anything but simple. Successfully completing a registration on your own can take months – trading drafts and updates of forms and descriptions back and forth with your required regulator. Doing it on your own will require a firm understanding of relevant legislation and policy which we have conveniently provided for you here to catch up on-  just in case you don’t know it 100%.

You WILL Make Mistakes

Common problems that can stalwart your registration include:

• Starting and Submitting Forms Out Of Order Costs Time
• Inconsistency Between Forms Costs More Time
• Typos, Formatting, Error-Filled Documents
• Providing Obsolete Information
• Writing Your ADV as a PhD Instead of Layman Terms
• Deficiencies are Subject to Opinion and Interpretation of Regulators

Each of these mistakes will require up to 45 days waiting for return from the SEC or longer from the state – with no notice or clue to you. Then you can look forward to hours grinding your teeth on the phone trying to leave a message to find out how best to solve the errors you made. Within a few days a human regulator will call back or respond to your email, and point you in the direction you’ve waited weeks for. This can happen an infinite number of times before you are registered- while simple mistakes are avoidable it is next to impossible to meet the more vague requirements of registering on your first couple drafts. As the number of RIA applicants grows and the ability to process them remains stagnant – each resubmission will put you lower and lower on a longer and longer list.

Skip The Bureaucratic Process

By using SimplyRIA you can avoid these hassles, focus on more pertinent aspects of your book, and get to business sooner by avoiding the mistakes that trip up the applications of those new to registering. Out of chaos comes simplicity.

Some light reading you should enlighten yourself with before you begin registering on your own:

• Wall Street Reform Act
• Investment Advisors Act of 1940
• SEC Rules and Regulations
• SEC Act of 1933
• SEC Act of 1934
• Trust Indenture Act of 1939
• Investment Company Act of 1940
• Sarbanes-Oxley
• Dodd-Frank
• Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012

See, we’re experts in all of the above links. We stay on top of it so you don’t have to. Don’t try to walk down this road yourself, contact SimplyRIA today.