Corporate Courtship before Being Married to Company Compliance

Then the ultimate compliance officer came into my life when I changed broker/dealers. His nickname was Stalin, among our registered reps. His diatribe about over reviewing and editing of my communications were for my own protection. (But to me, it sounded more like sales prevention.) But that actually gave me some sense of solace. At that time, I only had a series 6. Compliance would check my language, make corrections and delete anything that wasn’t kosher. Perfect! I wasn’t schooled in securities, so I gratefully acquiesced. How naive I was.

A few years later, I obtained my Series 7 and 24. I began selling limited partnerships, individual stocks and bonds, but the vast majority of my sales were non-FINRA insurance products. But that didn’t matter from a compliance point of view. I was a registered representative and all client communication was required to be reviewed and approved before I could use it.

So, I just saluted the flag and dutifully submitted my non-FINRA product statements to the compliance department. Then my communication submissions began to be returned back to me piecemeal, some approved, some not and others stricken altogether. I’d call the compliance department for further clarity. It seemed to me that they were always dancing around the items in contention, never really addressing the issues. More to the fact that it seemed arbitrary and subjective, not regulatory. So, each sale company has its own marketing methodology in the public domain. You need to have your advertisements, tweets, blogs, etc. reviewed before you join a company. It’s called corporate courtship, i.e. you need to date first before marriage.