Financial Advisor Website Compliance Review: What Your CCO Will Check

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal or compliance advice.

Getting your site built is one thing. Getting it through your compliance officer's review is another. The advisors who get clean approvals are the ones who've already checked for the things compliance will catch.

This is a working checklist of what CCOs typically review on an advisory website. Use it before you submit for approval.

What changed in 2022 that matters now

The SEC's amended Marketing Rule (Rule 206(4)-1) took effect in November 2022. It replaced the previous advertising and solicitation rules and changed several things that directly affect websites.

The most important changes for website purposes:

• Testimonials are now allowed for RIAs under specific conditions, replacing the previous prohibition
• Endorsements (from people who are not clients) have their own disclosure requirements
• Third-party ratings (awards, top advisor lists) require specific disclosure language
• Performance advertising has new substantiation and presentation requirements

If your site was built before 2023 and hasn't been reviewed since, it may not reflect these changes.

Disclosures: what gets checked first

ADV Part 2 and CRS disclosure

Your CCO will check that your site links to Form ADV Part 2 and, if you're a retail advisor, Form CRS. These links need to be accessible. A buried footer link that requires scrolling and a click sequence is not "accessible" under most reasonable interpretations.

Standard placement: footer of every page, or a dedicated disclosures page linked from the footer.

Required disclosure language

The bottom of your homepage and disclosures page should include at minimum:

• Registration status and what it does and does not imply
• Your state of registration and where you're authorized to do business if you're state-registered
• A statement that the site is not soliciting advisory clients in states where you're not registered (if applicable)

Some CCOs also want explicit language that website content is not investment advice.

Fee disclosure consistency

Your website should be consistent with your fee disclosures in ADV Part 2. If your site says "we charge a flat fee" and your ADV describes AUM-based fees, that's a conflict your CCO will flag.

Testimonials: the most common area of new risk

Under the current rule, you can use client testimonials. You can also get in trouble if they're done wrong.

Every testimonial must disclose:

• That it's from a current client
• Whether the client was compensated (even de minimis compensation like a gift card requires disclosure)
• A statement that past experience may not be representative of other clients

The disclosure must appear in close proximity to the testimonial. A general disclaimer at the bottom of the page, separate from the testimonials themselves, is not compliant under most interpretations.

What CCOs typically catch:

• Testimonials with no disclosure language at all
• Testimonials where disclosure is buried in a clickable footnote
• Case studies that read like testimonials but aren't labeled as such
• Generic review aggregation widgets (Google reviews pulled in without disclosure)

Endorsements: different from testimonials

An endorsement comes from someone who is not a client: an accountant who refers business to you, a journalist who quoted you favorably, a peer who can speak to your expertise.

Endorsements require:

• Disclosure that the person is not a client
• Whether the endorser was compensated (and if so, materially, how)

A quote from a CPA who refers business to you is a compensated endorsement if you have a formal referral arrangement. It needs to say so.

Third-party ratings and lists

"Top 100 advisor" badges, magazine rankings, and industry recognition require specific disclosure language under the Marketing Rule.

Required for every such rating or ranking:

• The name of the rating organization
• The date of the rating and the time period it covers
• The criteria used for the award (or a link to it)
• Whether any compensation was paid to be considered

A badge that says "Five-Star Wealth Manager 2024" with no additional context is not compliant.

Performance data

If your site includes any reference to past investment results, portfolio returns, or account growth examples, your CCO will scrutinize these carefully.

Performance advertising under the current rule requires:

• Gross and net returns both presented
• A benchmark for comparison when returns are shown
• Disclosure of the time period covered
• A statement that past performance doesn't guarantee future results

Performance data on advisory websites is frequently mishandled. If you're not certain your performance presentation meets the current rule's requirements, remove it until you've confirmed with your compliance officer.

Photography and client representations

Staged photos implying client demographics are a low-risk area but occasionally come up in reviews. The concern is whether the imagery implies a specific client type that the firm doesn't actually serve.

More practically: your CCO may ask about images that look like they're designed to imply returns or wealth accumulation (people looking at growth charts, happy people on yachts, etc.).

Free tool and calculator disclosures

If your site includes a financial calculator or planning tool, even a simple one, it may need disclosure language clarifying that it's illustrative and not a recommendation.

Technology vendor disclosures

Some CCOs ask about data handling for any form submission or lead capture tool on the site. This is more common in larger RIA settings. If your site submits leads to a CRM, you may need a privacy policy that addresses how that data is used and stored.

What CCOs almost never flag

For context, things that rarely generate compliance comments:

• Firm philosophy statements that don't include performance claims
• Staff bios without credential misrepresentations
• Service descriptions that are accurate and not misleadingly specific
• Blog content that is educational and not customized to a specific individual's situation

Getting to a cleaner first submission

The advisors who get through CCO review fastest are the ones who've done two things before they submit:

First, they've separated factual claims from marketing language. "We manage money for tech employees" is a factual statement. "We achieve outstanding results for tech employees" is a marketing claim that needs support.

Second, they've put every testimonial, rating, and performance reference through the checklist above before submitting.

A site that comes back with three specific disclosure corrections is a very different engagement than one that comes back with a list of 20 structural concerns.