Most advisors keep annual compliance budgets under $50,000, and more than half stick to a budget of less than $25,000. Those spending levels represent at least baseline numbers in all cases, however, as no advisors report a decrease in their compliance budgets compared to the previous year. In fact, 42% indicate they increased their budget within the past year.
In many cases, budget increases have been earmarked for additional compliance staff. Nearly two in three advisors (65%) reporting increased budgets plan to hire one or more compliance functions in the coming year, with most of these hires expected in the areas of compliance training (15%), compliance communications (11%), and data and analytics (11%).
Most advisors (61%) indicate they do not intend to hire any additional compliance functions in the next year, however. While most of these firms report stable budgets, more than one in four firms expecting to increase their budgets indicate they have no plans for further hires (26%), opting instead to put more resources at the disposal of their existing compliance personnel.