Comply or Die?

Compliance conundrums are growing in the minds of financial advisors mulling independence. An Aite Group survey last spring found that 53 percent saw compliance as “extremely challenging” or “very challenging” to independence, compared to just 38 percent in 2009. Technology infrastructure also ranked high: 54 percent vs. 32 percent. Aite analyst Alois Pirker sees a relationship. Dodd-Frank laws have more advisors pondering the regulatory burdens of going it alone, and a lot of compliance processes — trading, or e-mail monitoring — are linked to technology.