The efforts advisors have put into their compliance programs appear to be paying off: 35% of respondents indicate their firm underwent a regulatory audit in the past year, but of those, 97% passed—94% either without recommendations (58%) or with minor recommendations (36%).
Internal audits are the single biggest worry keeping firms awake at night (21%). This finding may link to the idea that most firms spend a relatively small proportion of their time on compliance efforts and therefore may be missing something that a regulatory agency would not. Multiple respondents specified internal mistakes and missed details as particular worries at their firms.