RIAs are under pressure to grow. Many are investing in marketing to get there. They’re launching podcasts, writing thought pieces, and promoting advisor content on LinkedIn. This is smart business. In a competitive market, visibility builds trust.
But marketing isn’t just fast-moving. It’s highly regulated.
Growth has a constraint. The same tactics that drive visibility also trigger regulatory scrutiny.
Under the SEC’s marketing rule, nearly everything a firm publishes may count as advertising. Testimonials, performance results, social media posts, and third-party ratings all trigger compliance obligations. Every piece must be reviewed, retained, and available for examination.
Smaller firms are finding out the hard way that growth brings risk. Not because their content is reckless, but because review capacity hasn’t kept up. As we outlined in our analysis of the SEC’s recent oil and gas charges, regulators are looking closely at how firms substantiate claims, supervise marketing activity, and document oversight as growth accelerates.
The Rule Is Active. But Compliance Lags Behind.
The SEC marketing rule became effective in November 2022. But three years later, many firms are still behind on implementation. According to Comply’s 2026 CCO & Compliance Leader Insights Report, 49% of compliance leaders still review marketing manually.
This lack of infrastructure creates risk. In its December 2025 Risk Alert, the agency highlighted ongoing deficiencies in marketing practices. These included missing disclosures, improper use of third-party ratings, and failures to retain required documentation. The message is clear: controls matter more than intent.
Small Firms, Big Pressure
There are now over 15,000 SEC-registered investment advisers in the United States. According to the IAA’s 2025 Industry Snapshot, nearly 88% of those firms manage under $5 billion. About 68% manage under $1 billion.
These smaller firms are often the leanest. The average SEC-registered adviser who focuses on individuals as clients has only 8 employees. Many of those employees wear multiple hats.
That makes it hard to scale review workflows or centralize supervision. And it shows. In Comply’s survey, marketing oversight was named a top exam-day concern, alongside documentation gaps and off-channel communications.
Firms in this category often lack:
- Centralized review workflows
- Documented policies tailored to advisor-led marketing
- Scalable tools to track approvals and retain records
Without these systems, growth turns into risk exposure. And the SEC has shown no interest in making exceptions for small firms.
The Bottleneck Is Not Growth. It’s Review Capacity.
The desire to grow isn’t the issue. The problem is execution.
According to Comply’s data:
- 59% are unsure how regulators will view new technology
- 52% of firms cite budget constraints as a barrier to automation
- 44% lack internal resources to implement changes
These pressures fall hardest on firms that are growing fast but operating lean. The problem isn’t ambition. It’s bandwidth.
This gap is especially stark given the growth in content creation. The Industry Snapshot notes that 67% of RIAs now use multiple social media platforms, up from 44% in 2016. Yet fewer than 41% of advisers actively include performance in their marketing. Many avoid it altogether due to compliance strain.
Four Ways Smaller RIAs Can Close the Gap
You don’t need a full compliance team to get this right. But you do need a system.
- Build risk-based review tiers. Not all content is equal. High-risk items like performance must go through full review. Educational or evergreen content may follow lighter workflows.
- Train advisors on what triggers review. Advisors are now content creators. They need to know what qualifies as advertising, what needs pre-approval, and what must be disclosed.
- Centralize documentation. Every approved ad or communication must be stored. This includes disclosures, versions, and review records. Manual folders won’t scale.
- Use fractional compliance support. If your team doesn’t need a full-time reviewer, consider part-time help. Many firms under $1B AUM need 10 to 20 hours a week, not 40.
Scaling Without Losing Control
Marketing is critical to firm growth. But it comes with real regulatory exposure. Small RIAs are not exempt. In many cases, they are the most vulnerable.
The solution isn’t to slow down. It’s to build compliance review capacity that scales with your marketing ambitions.
Because growth without governance is no longer an option.
Comply can help. From expert reviews of websites, social posts, and presentations to tailored policies and procedures aligned with SEC expectations, we empower compliance leaders to scale oversight without slowing growth.