What the SEC Marketing Rule changed about advisor newsletters

Studio sample: editorial guidance and illustrative examples. A qualified reviewer must approve firm-specific communications.

For most registered investment advisers, the monthly newsletter used to be the least risky thing they published. It was a market recap, a planning tip and a photo from the firm’s charity golf day. Under the SEC Marketing Rule, which took full effect in November 2022, parts of that newsletter may now count as an advertisement.

This working example shows the kinds of questions an editor should prepare before compliance review: dated figures, the context behind a client story and the evidence supporting a chart. The figures below are demonstration data, not findings from a real review queue.

The most common edits are no longer about tone. They are about numbers.

Editorial working note

Where newsletters trip

Three patterns account for most of the changes our editors make before a draft reaches a client’s chief compliance officer. First, performance figures that appear without the period, net-of-fee presentation or a comparison the rule expects. Second, a line such as “one longtime client told us” that turns a planning story into a testimonial. Third, forward-looking language that sounds like a promise.

What we changed in our process

We moved our fact-check ahead of the compliance handoff, added a disclosure library to each client’s style sheet, and began attaching a one-page sourcing memo to every newsletter. Reviewers now see where each number came from without asking.

We also archive each approved issue with the approver’s name, the date and every prior draft. When an examiner asks for the record behind a sentence, the client can produce it in minutes.

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