The past year has seen previously sweeping enforcement actions turn into reduced regulation, and prescriptive rulemaking to simplified policies – leaving firms wondering where they need to refocus their efforts. However, a recent Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Marketing Rule fine has signaled that, despite these shifts, marketing compliance remains a regulatory priority.
Transcending regulatory transitions
On September 4, 2025 the SEC issued a $75,000 fine against a Massachusetts-based registered investment adviser (RIA) for publishing a website advertisement that claimed the company “refused all conflicts of interest,” despite recognizing that this was a misleading statement in its own documentation. In addition to violating the Marketing Rule, the firm failed to maintain complete records of its advertisements, including those on its website.
The industry has seen a sequence of Marketing Rule enforcement sweeps over the past several years, with the largest penalty of $1.24 million being issued in September 2024. Prior to this, the SEC handed out a $850,000 fine against nine advisers in September 2023 and issued another fine against five firms in April 2025 for $200,000. In all these cases, the involved RIAs All were found to have issued advertisements that included unsubstantiated statements about hypothetical performance.
The most recent Marketing Rule fine was the first one to come after a change of the SEC guard. Under the new administration, the SEC has taken steps to shift its approach in what SEC Chairman Paul Atkins calls a return to its “core mission,” which has included a move away from “regulation by enforcement.” However, the continued cadence of enforcements for Marketing Rule breaches should come as a clear warning to firms that this is an SEC focus area that is not going away any time soon.
What is the SEC Marketing Rule?
The SEC’s Marketing Rule sets out guidelines to ensure that advertisements are “fair and balanced” and not misleading to investors. Introduced in 2020, the SEC set out the Marketing Rule to help firms differentiate between advertisements and advice and eliminate the chance of customers being misled or mis-sold products they don’t need because of a trusted regulated financial advisor’s recommendation.
This Rule, which replaced the SEC’s previous Advertising Rule and Cash Solicitation Rule, was meant to give firms more practical advice regarding their advertising. The Rule also provides an updated definition of advertising, seven general prohibitions stating what advertisements cannot include, and guidelines for testimonials and third-party ratings.
Capture, clarify, comply
To stay on the right side of the SEC’s Marketing Rule guidelines and out of the enforcement firing line, firms should review their compliance procedures and consider whether they have the tools in place to capture and archive their marketing messaging across all channels, including social media and their business websites.
Manage and substantiate marketing claims
When using advertising that includes statements or claims about performance, it is imperative that firms ensure these have a reasonable basis or are backed up by evidence. By retaining complete documentation of these advertisements across their marketing channels, firms will be able to prove the validity of investor communications if called upon. This audit trail will be invaluable in case the regulator requests records to provide context and verify the accuracy of advertisements.
Capture and retain communications
Modern social media platforms provide firms with the ability to reach a larger audience, making them an invaluable tool for promoting advertisements and connecting with new clients. However, this increases potential marketing risk, as communications containing advice tailored toward a specific audience may reach a wider one.
This necessitates that firms implement systems that can capture and supervise all marketing communications across channels. In the case that there are any statements that violate guidelines, such as a performance claim that lacks disclosures or unsubstantiated endorsements, having monitoring tools that can identify these issues allow firms to address and tackle them early.
In addition to retaining records of internal marketing communications, firms should also ensure they’re maintaining records of third-party ratings like testimonials, and must ensure that capture and monitoring efforts extend across all channels marketing messaging appears on, from social media and video channels to their own websites
Ensure teams understand that compliance is a shared responsibility
While ultimately a firm’s compliance and surveillance functions are responsible for ensuring that regulatory requirements are understood and met, compliance is a “team sport,” with responsibility extending across the business.
With the SEC Marketing Rule specifically governing marketing messaging, compliance functions should conduct regular outreach and training for marketing teams to ensure that this shared responsibility is understood. By using real-world examples of marketing messaging that fell afoul of the rules, firms can make sure that marketing teams are aware of the rules they need to follow, and that messaging is compliant from inception to execution.
Conduct regular reviews
Alongside monitoring and capturing communications, firms should also regularly schedule reviews to ensure that communications remain compliant over time – especially as business practices evolve. By taking a risk-based approach and evidencing that communications were assessed and approved, firms can provide regulators with confidence and transparency.
The moral of marketing messaging
In an era where digital platforms dominate attention and influence opinion, firms must understand the weight of marketing communications in building or breaking investor trust. While marketing is often seen as a less serious part of the business and sales process, the repercussions of breaching marketing rules can be serious indeed. The right marketing messaging can stay with audiences for a long time – but the impacts of non-compliant messaging that draws the attention of regulators might stick around for far longer.
By implementing the right solutions and policies, firms can be sure they’re upholding communications compliance while leveraging the power of marketing tools. Global Relay’s suite of Connectors and archiving tools offer compliance teams solutions to capture and retain data across all marketing channels.
