New industry whitepaper authored by noted compliance/regulatory expert Sander Ressler explores benefits of third-party providers
A newly released whitepaper authored by renowned financial services compliance consultant Sander Ressler takes a closer look at the role outsourcing plays in supporting wealth management firms in an evolving regulatory landscape – and finding that within today’s business ecosystem, leveraging third-party providers can optimize outcomes on many fronts. Mr. Ressler is the founder and CEO of Essential Edge Compliance Outsourcing Services, LLC (Essential Edge), which provides third-party outsourced compliance services for broker-dealers and registered investment advisers.
The whitepaper explores the confluence of forces, including technological innovation, shifting attitudes toward work, the rise of the gig economy and increasing demand for specialization, that are driving this shift and considers the ramifications in his report.
“Compliance has traditionally been among the most important, complex and expensive functional areas within the wealth management industry,” said Mr. Ressler. “So, it’s not surprising that businesses are increasingly considering outsourcing as a means to leverage specialized knowledge without incurring the costs associated with W-2 employees, as non-traditional work paradigms are transforming the very idea of employment throughout the economy.”
According to the whitepaper, the total cost of an $80,000 employee could actually run $112,000 or more annually, while the average tenure for workers in the U.S. was 3.9 years (2.7 years for workers between ages 25 and 35).
Mr. Ressler’s analysis reaches beyond the economic ramifications of outsourcing to discuss the intangible benefits, such as:
- The ability to select the expertise you need, when you need it, quickly
- Access to innovative technologies without integrating platforms with your legacy tech stack
- Freeing up your internal team to focus on value-add, pro-growth priorities instead of labor-intensive tasks
- Increased objectivity when handling sensitive situations since there are no internal conflicts of interest
The paper, titled “Should Wealth Management Firms Build Out Internal Compliance Staff or Bring on Outsourced Compliance Services?” delivers insightful perspectives to wealth management enterprises on best practices for approaching compliance oversight challenges in a low cost, efficient and effective way.
