RIA Compliance Consultants is a team of industry experienced professionals dedicated to working with investment advisors who are also committed to implementing good compliance and risk management strategies. By working together, RIA Compliance Consultants helps investment advisors navigate the maze of investment advisor compliance regulations and find the best ways to satisfy their obligations.

Mission Statement

RIA Compliance Consultants helps investment advisors identify regulatory and risk management challenges, and then build and implement practical solutions that protect their clients and meet their regulatory responsibilities.

Bryan Hill, President

Bryan Hill is the President and founder of RIA Compliance Consultants, Inc. He established RIA Compliance Consultants at the urging of former industry colleagues that were seeking guidance about how to comply with new and changing rules for registered investment advisors.

As President of RIA Compliance Consultants, Bryan leads a team of compliance consultants that assists registered investment advisors with meeting their regulatory obligations.  In particular, Bryan’s compliance consulting practice focuses upon assisting investment advisors registered with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in developing comprehensive compliance programs and assessing the effectiveness of such policies, procedures and internal controls.

Bryan is also an attorney practicing law in a capacity completely separate from RIA Compliance Consultants. His law practice concentrates upon legal matters related to registered investment advisors such as administrative enforcement proceedings by securities regulators, arbitrations, succession planning, acquisitions, post-employment restrictions and trade secrets. In the event that you would like to retain Bryan as an attorney, you will need to engage him through his law firm since RIA Compliance Consultants is a compliance consulting firm and does not provide legal services.^*

Prior to entering into private practice, Bryan served as president of an independent broker-dealer and worked extensively on investment advisory issues.  He specifically led the development of an investment advisor compliance practice group that served numerous independently registered investment advisors. His more tactical experiences include leading a team of compliance professionals that supervised the activities of 1,400 registered representatives and investment advisor representatives across the country. Serving as in-house legal counsel to a financial services company, Bryan prepared defenses to securities arbitrations, interpreted broker-dealer and investment advisor regulations, and handled regulatory investigations. These various roles within the securities industry make Bryan especially adept at understanding the challenges facing registered investment advisors and providing compliance advice that considers different perspectives.

Jarrod James, Vice President & Senior Compliance Consultant

Jarrod James serves as a Vice President and Senior Compliance Consultant for RIA Compliance Consultants, Inc.

His duties at RIA Compliance Consultants include the registration of new investment advisor firms, developing written supervisory policies and procedures and codes of ethics, reviewing advertising and sales literature, presenting compliance training for investment advisors, annual amendments, and assisting investment advisor firms with regulatory exams including the preparation of letters of response to alleged deficiencies. Moreover, a significant portion of Jarrod’s consulting practice involves working closely with a limited number of annual retainer clients of RIA Compliance Consultants by creating and implementing ongoing compliance programs for such clients. Finally, his focus on strategic planning, recruiting investment advisory firms as clients, and providing professional compliance consulting services to those clients have been instrumental in the development and growth of RIA Compliance Consultants.

Jarrod is an experienced investment advisor compliance professional. His background includes working as a Compliance Examiner for one of the largest independent broker-dealers in the country. In this role, his focus was on the regulatory responsibilities of the firm’s corporate investment advisory unit, which maintained nearly $10 billion in assets under administration and management.  Jarrod’s responsibilities also included the preparation of Form ADVs, compliance manuals, advertising reviews, compliance training seminars, and conducting audits of independent investment advisor firms operated by registered representatives of the independent broker-dealer.

Jarrod graduated, cum laude, from Northwest Missouri State University where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Government with minors in Economics and Criminal Justice while also an Academic All-Conference student-athlete.  He earned a Master of Arts in Management from the Bellevue University – College of Business.  Jarrod is a designated Investment Adviser Certified Compliance Professional^SM (IACCP^SM) and has passed the Series 7, Series 24, and Series 66 examinations.

Tammy Emsick, Senior Compliance Consultant

Tammy Emsick serves as a Senior Compliance Consultant for RIA Compliance Consultants, Inc.

Her compliance consulting practice at RIA Compliance Consultants concentrates upon registering new investment advisor firms, developing written compliance programs and codes of ethics, conducting mock SEC and state regulatory examinations, assisting investment advisor firms with regulatory exams including the preparation of letters of response to alleged deficiencies, and presenting compliance training for investment advisors.

Tammy is an experienced securities industry professional. Her career in the securities industry began over 20 years ago. During this tenure, Tammy has successfully passed the Series 7, Series 24, and Series 66 examinations and held various leadership roles in compliance and operations. 

Since approximately 1996, Tammy has concentrated upon compliance issues related to the investment advisory rules issued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and state securities regulators. In particular, Tammy has served as the RIA Compliance Director of one of the largest independent broker-dealers in the country. In this role, Tammy was responsible for compliance matters and documentation development for the firm’s corporate investment advisor, which maintained over $10 billion in assets under management and administration and had over 800 investment advisor representatives.

In addition to her compliance work with the corporate investment advisor of the independent broker, Tammy also led the development of a compliance consulting group that assisted independent investment advisor firms that were operated by registered representatives of the independent broker-dealer. In this capacity, she and her staff consulted with over a hundred independent investment adviser firms on various regulatory issues, prepared regulatory documents such as Form ADVs and compliance manuals, and administered IARD accounts. Finally, Tammy developed and taught investment advisory compliance training seminars, conducted investment advisory audits of independent investment advisor firms operated by registered representatives of the independent broker-dealer, and assisted these independent investment advisor firms with the preparation for regulatory audits and providing responses for such audits. 

Christina Bruck Heller, Senior Compliance Consultant

Christina Bruck Heller serves as a Senior Compliance Consultant for RIA Compliance Consultants, Inc. Christina is also an Associate Attorney with Bryan Hill, Attorney at Law in a capacity completely separate from RIA Compliance Consultants.

Her compliance consulting duties at RIA Compliance Consultants include the registration of new investment advisor firms, developing written supervisory policies and procedures and codes of ethics, conducting mock regulatory examinations, and assisting investment advisor firms with regulatory examinations including the preparation of letters in response to alleged deficiencies.

In her separate capacity as an associate attorney of Bryan Hill Attorney at Law, Christina concentrates upon legal matters related to registered investment advisors and broker-dealers such as administrative enforcement proceedings by securities regulators, arbitrations, and disputes over post-employment restrictions and trade secrets. In the event that you would like to retain her as an attorney, you will need to contact the law firm of Bryan Hill Attorney at Law since RIA Compliance Consultants is a compliance consulting firm and does not provide legal services.^*

Christina is an experienced securities industry professional. Her background includes working as counsel for a large independent broker-dealer with a corporate investment advisory unit. She has extensive experience handling regulatory inquiries and examinations as well as investor initiated complaints directed to the broker-dealer firm, broker-dealer branch offices and to independent investment advisor firms that were operated by registered representatives of the independent broker-dealer. Additionally, Christina has experience conducting the supervision of registered representatives and investment advisor representatives, including conducting office examinations. Christina is a FINRA arbitrator and has passed the Series 7, Series 24, Series 4, Series 53, and Series 66 examinations. Additionally, Christina is a designated Investment Adviser Certified Compliance Professional^SM (IACCP^SM).

Christina earned her Juris Doctor degree from the University of Iowa College of Law. She completed her undergraduate studies at Creighton University, magna cum laude, with a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature (and a Certificate in Business).

Debbie Deaton, Senior Compliance Consultant

Debbie Deaton serves as Senior Compliance Consultant for RIA Compliance Consultants, Inc. Her consulting duties include the registration of new investment advisor firms, developing written supervisory policies and procedures and codes of ethics, providing training to new chief compliance officers, and assessing the compliance programs of investment advisor firms.

Debbie is an experienced investment advisor compliance professional. Her background includes working as a compliance examiner for one of the largest independent broker/dealers in the country. In this role, her responsibilities focused on supporting independent investment advisor firms operated by registered representatives of the independent broker/dealer. This support included the preparation of Form ADVs, annual and other-than-annual amendments, compliance manuals and privacy policies, performing advertising reviews, leading compliance training seminars, serving as instructor for internal educational seminars on advisor issues and conducting compliance audits.

Debbie’s career in the securities industry began over 12 years ago, and she successfully passed the Series 7, Series 24 and Series 66 examinations. Prior to working in the securities industry, she was a corporate and legislative paralegal for a local law firm. She graduated, summa cum laude, from the College of Saint Mary with a Bachelors of Art in Paralegal Studies.

* Nature of a Consulting Relationship – Not a Law Firm

Although RIA Compliance Consultants, Inc. (“RCC”) is an affiliate of a law firm and RCC may have an individual on its staff that is also licensed as an attorney providing legal services in a completely separate capacity, RCC is not a law firm or an attorney and does not provide legal services or legal advice.

In general, a licensed attorney is regulated by his or her state supreme court through the use of rules of professional conduct, minimum education and examination requirements and a disciplinary process. Unlike a client of an attorney, a client of RCC will not receive the advantages of such regulatory oversight since the compliance consultant occupation is not licensed by state government.

A compliance consulting relationship with RCC is not provided those legal and professional protections that normally exist under an attorney-client relationship such as the following: (a) privileged communication between an attorney and client; (b) the requirement for an attorney to use a client trust account for safekeeping of fees paid in advance; or (c) prohibitions preventing an attorney from having impermissible relationships with clients, representing other persons with conflicting interests, receiving referral fees from third-party vendors, or prospectively limiting liability for malpractice through a contractual provision in a client agreement.

In the event that a securities regulator has initiated an enforcement proceeding claiming an individual or entity has violated the applicable law, such individual or entity will need to retain legal counsel to represent the individual or entity before the securities regulator. Although RCC may serve as an expert regarding industry practices, RCC is not a substitute for engaging appropriate legal counsel to represent such individual or entity.

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