In March 2025, the SEC staff issued updated guidance on amendments to Rule 206(4)-1 (aka, the Marketing Rule), which became mandatory on November 4, 2022.

According to the Kitces Report, it’s a core part of how regulators evaluate your website, pitch decks, social content, and client communications. For RIAs and wealth management professionals, a clear, current, and comprehensive compliance policy is essential. 

Here’s a practical, easy-to-read guide on staying compliant while still effectively communicating your value from the senior Advisor Transition Consultants of TERRANA GROUP.

Fiduciary Transparency + Growth  

The SEC has designated the Marketing Rule as an examination and enforcement priority, with sweeps targeting hypothetical performance, endorsements, third‑party ratings, and unsubstantiated claims. 

Enforcement actions through the end of FY2025 show that firms of all sizes are at risk, including smaller RIAs that previously relied on outdated advertising practices.​

For advisory firms competing for top talent, a documented and well‑implemented marketing compliance program is also a recruiting asset. Candidates are increasingly on the lookout for firms that balance growth‑oriented marketing with a culture of regulatory discipline and reputational care.

In the 2025 Investment Management Compliance Testing Survey, a majority of respondents are concerned about marketing, AI, and compliance — and how they all tie in together. 

Understanding What Actually Counts as Marketing

The Marketing Rule’s definition of “advertisement” is deliberately expansive. 

It covers any direct or indirect communication that offers advisory services to prospective clients, promotes services to existing clients, or involves testimonials and endorsements, whether paid or unpaid.

This means your firm’s marketing universe likely extends far beyond traditional brochures and website content. 

It touches almost every modern growth strategy:

The rule applies across channels, and compliance gaps in any single channel create regulatory exposure across your entire practice. 

Today’s Advisors need comprehensive operational systems that prevent violations before they occur.

A Practical Marketing Compliance Checklist

Effective SEC Marketing Rule compliance is more than simply updating your policies and procedures manual. 

Build a powerful framework for success with these insights around the core requirements:

7 General Prohibitions: Foundational Content Standards

At the center of every compliant advisory marketing policy is the need for communications that are truthful, fair, and honest.

Advisors should ensure that advertisements and client communications follow the SEC’s seven general prohibitions:

  • Avoid untrue statements of material fact and do not leave out context that would make a statement misleading.
  • Use only factual claims that the firm can reasonably support with documentation on demand.
  • Don’t create exaggerated or misleading impressions through selective wording, layout, graphics, or omissions.
  • Describe potential benefits together with a true explanation of material risks, limitations, and trade‑offs.
  • Present specific investment advice, strategies, and outcomes in a balanced way — you can’t showcase only the best time periods, clients, or investments.
  • Steer clear of any promises or guarantees of future results, whether explicit or implied through phrasing or visuals.
  • Do not contain content, formatting, or design choices that could reasonably mislead an investor, even if individual statements are technically accurate.

Provide Clear Guidance on Performance Reporting

Whenever performance numbers appear in an advertisement, the Marketing Rule adds detailed, prescriptive requirements. 

Gross and net returns

Gross performance must be clearly identified, and net performance is presented with equal prominence, over the same periods, using the same calculation methodology. 

Net results should be meaningful and not buried in footnotes or separate pages.

Standardized time periods

Ensure that performance presentations include standardized 1‑, 5‑, and 10‑year annualized returns, displayed with the same prominence as any single “highlight” period.

Hypothetical and model performance

Written policies and procedures for any use of hypothetical, model, backtested, or projected performance are a must-have. 

Limit distribution to appropriate, well‑defined audiences, and mandate clear disclosures around key assumptions, data sources, and the limitations and risks of relying on such information.

Benchmarks and comparisons

Require that benchmarks are clearly labeled, reasonably related to the strategy, and consistently calculated. 

Testimonials, Endorsements, and Third‑Party Ratings

Because testimonials, endorsements, and ratings can strongly influence investor behavior, the Marketing Rule imposes specific guardrails. Your policies and checklist should cover:

Written agreements for compensated promoters

Require a signed agreement with any person or entity that receives compensation (cash or non‑cash) for providing a testimonial or endorsement. 

Mandatory disclosures

Ensure that every testimonial or endorsement clearly and prominently discloses:

  • Whether the speaker is a current client, former client, or non‑client.
  • Whether compensation was provided and, in general terms, what kind.
  • Any material conflicts of interest the speaker may have because of the relationship or compensation.

Your checklist should make clear that if a rating, award, or quote could create a misleading impression, even with disclosures, it should not be used.

Advertising Review and Approval Workflow

Even the best‑written policies fail if content goes out the door without consistent review. 

→ A practical checklist should embed process controls that govern how marketing content is created, reviewed, and approved.

→ This doesn’t mean your CCO personally approves every social media post, but it does mean establishing clear approval hierarchies. 

Maintain a library of pre‑approved, evergreen content blocks like risk language, disclosure templates, performance footers, and testimony guidelines that Advisors and marketers can reuse without reinventing disclosures every time.

Moving Forward with Confidence

For RIAs and wealth management firms competing in a tight talent and client market, strong Marketing Rule compliance policies do more than keep regulators satisfied. 

They build trust with clients, protect the firm’s reputation, create a smoother recruiting environment, and support long-term scalability.

The path forward may seem overwhelming, but the senior Advisor Transition Consultants of TERRANA GROUP are here to help Advisors find their North Star — let’s start the conversation today!