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Compliance Advisor Professionals, LLC (CAP) is a team of professionals with backgrounds in securities, finance, investments, accounting, and marketing. We also have in-depth knowledge of SEC and state rules and regulations earned from our many years of experience in the compliance industry.
Compliance isn’t just a hurdle your firm needs to clear so you can do business as a registered investment advisor (RIA); it is the foundation for your business. CAP is committed to ensuring that the foundation is a strong and stable one.
CAP was established to meet a need our professionals identified in the market. We realized that as critical as compliance is, the cost of in-house compliance support was prohibitive for many investment advisory firms. At the same time, those firms could ill afford to manage their own compliance; navigating a maze of ever-changing federal or state regulations consumed time they needed to devote to their clients.
Outsourcing was an option, but at the time, the only services available to help firms with registration and regulatory compliance were less than ideal. They tended to be rigid and non-customized, providing clients with shrink-wrapped documents to be unwrapped and placed in binders to serve as a Compliance Manual or Code of Ethics. That approach was not designed to take into account the compliance support needs of a particular investment advisory firm.
Furthermore, when investment advisory firms contacted these “big box” compliance support companies, they often spoke to a different consultant every time they called the toll-free number. The consultant on the other end of the line didn’t know them or their business, so firms had to give extensive background every time they called, just to get their questions answered.
The system was frustrating, and often left firms and advisors feeling unseen and unsupported. Unfortunately, it was the best option available for many investment advisory firms, until CAP decided to build a better one. Ever since, we have been providing cost-effective, knowledgeable, and customized compliance support services to all types and sizes of investment advisory firms.
President and Managing Director Ellen Bruno started CAP in 2004. Ellen began her career at a large, internationally known accounting firm. In her capacity as an auditor there, she worked with many firms in the financial services industry, including investment advisors, broker-dealers, and mutual funds.
After leaving that position, Ellen became a financial analyst at one of the first asset manager aggregators in the industry, and the role quickly transitioned into a quasi-internal audit position. The company’s Board of Directors, recognizing a need for greater oversight of its subsidiaries, tasked Ellen with reviewing subsidiaries’ compliance and operations. That work allowed her to develop in-depth knowledge of compliance requirements in a hands-on way, as well as through professional conferences and training.
This background equipped Ellen for her next position, as the Chief Compliance Officer (CCO) of a Boston-area investment advisory firm. She also served as Vice President and Secretary to an investment company trust. In that role, Ellen got to apply the rules she had learned in her advising capacity to real-life situations.
Ellen dedicated herself to that work for five years. At that point, having recognized the unmet need for customized compliance support, she decided the time was right to start her own firm: Compliance Advisor Professionals, LLC.
Today, CAP includes a carefully curated team of compliance professionals who love what they do, and take pride in offering investment advisors exactly the support their unique businesses need to succeed.
At CAP, we believe that managing your compliance responsibilities should provide peace of mind without breaking your budget. Our professionals bring a number of advantages to the table in service of that goal.
A firm offering compliance support to investment advisors should be more than familiar with the financial services industry; it should have in-depth understanding about how the industry works. At CAP, our professionals include a CPA, former CCO of an investment advisory firm, and a former state securities regulator. Our team members have spent years, and in some cases, decades, in the financial services industry. They know firsthand what regulators are looking for, and they understand the challenges investment advisors are facing.
As much as our clients respect our industry-specific knowledge, they value our personalized service even more. One of our core values is providing the precise compliance support every client needs. By taking the time to know each client and their unique circumstances and goals, we can offer the type and level of services they need. When you call CAP with a question, you speak with your consultant or another team member who knows your business every time. You will never have to bring us up to speed; we’re already there.
Getting to know our clients and their businesses also allows us to customize their documents. All registered advisory firms may need the same documents, but that doesn’t mean those documents should look the same for every firm. We know that regulators do not look favorably on boilerplate or “cookie-cutter” compliance programs. We make sure your compliance documents accurately reflect your current business model.
At CAP, we will never try to sell you products or services you don’t need. Instead, we work with you to help identify compliance issues and customize solutions to meet your firm’s needs. Whether the firm is SEC-registered or state-registered, we ensure that solutions comply with all applicable regulatory requirements.
We offer startup services that include:
Tailoring our services to your firm’s needs means you get support and peace of mind without paying for unnecessary services.
We pride ourselves on developing strong, lasting working relationships. That’s true within our firm, where we cultivate a positive environment and have very low turnover among the team. Our strong internal ties also mean that team members are around to build strong connections with our clients. When you work with CAP, you will build a working relationship with a consultant you trust, and who is committed to helping your business succeed.
Get the customized help you need to meet compliance and regulatory requirements, so you can focus on your business. Contact Compliance Advisor Professionals at (508) 828-1410, by email at info@complianceadv.com, or contact us online.
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