SEC sets Nov. 19 virtual compliance seminar for advisers and funds

The SEC's Compliance Outreach Program has set its national seminar for investment companies and investment advisers for Nov. 19, 2026, and this edition will be held virtually, with no advance registration required and the live webcast link posted on SEC.gov the morning of the event. That leaves a chief compliance officer deciding who from the firm should be watching when the panels start, and enforcement's place among the sponsors makes the answer more than a default.

The SEC names an audience broader than the title suggests—chief compliance officers and senior personnel at investment advisory firms and investment companies—and says the point is to help them enhance their compliance programs and protect investors. Three units sponsor the program jointly: the Division of Examinations, the Division of Investment Management, and the Asset Management Unit of the Division of Enforcement, and the SEC describes the aim as open communication and coordination among regulators and the industry on mutual fund, investment adviser, and broker-dealer compliance issues. The announcement went out Oct. 6, roughly six weeks before firms would need to plan around it, and panel details live behind the agenda link rather than in the release itself, which covers the date, format, sponsors and how questions can be submitted. A practice that has put AI tools into client-facing work, or that supervises advisers who have, will want to check that agenda to see whether the subject appears at all.

The release does not specify what each sponsor contributes to the panels, but a CCO choosing between attending alone or also sending the person who owns advisory-side supervision has reason to lean toward both, since the cost of a second attendee on a webcast is measured in hours.

Questions are the lever the notice hands over: submissions for the panel are invited in advance of the event or during it, through links in the agenda. For a CCO carrying an unresolved question about how a rule is being read in practice, an early submission is likely to draw a more considered answer than one raised cold in a live session, and it puts the issue in front of staff from Examinations and Investment Management without waiting for the next examination.

Both the panel lineup and the submission link sit behind that agenda, so a firm with something specific to ask has time to draft it before the panel convenes.