Social Media Policies Everywhere in Among Investment Advisors

The Investment Adviser Association, ACA Compliance Group and Old Mutual Asset Management released the 2012 Investment Management Compliance Testing Survey Report.  The report found that among the investment advisers surveyed:

• 80% maintained formal written social media policies in 2012
• 64%  maintained formal written social media policies in 2011
• 43%  maintained formal written social media policies in 2012

The survey also found that in 2012, 54% of investment advisers prohibit personal social media sites such as Facebook to be used for business purposes.  Further, in 2012, 54% of investment adviser firms audit for compliance with social media policies.

This data suggests that the regulated financial services industries have realized the ubiquity of social media - not only in the personal lives of employees and clients, but in the financial services industries.

With so few investment advisers maintaining formal written social media policies, the regulatory expectation, AKA Best Practice, will be for every regulated firm to not only maintain such policies but also test for compliance with the policies.