When does my investment adviser firm need to provide clients with its updated Form ADV Part 2A brochure?

The updated Form ADV Part 2A brochure will need to be provided going forward to all new clients and existing investment advisory clients requesting a current version of the brochure.  However, an investment adviser firm is not required to send a revised Form ADV Part 2A brochure to all existing investment advisory clients every time a material change is made.  An investment adviser firm only needs to deliver once per year no later than 120 days after the investment adviser firm’s fiscal year-end either (1) the current Form ADV Part 2A brochure with material changes made within the prior one-year period or (2) a summary of material changes made within the prior one-year period with an offer to provide a complete copy of Form ADV Part 2A brochure upon request.  This is commonly referred to as the “annual offer”.

There are two exceptions to the annual offer of the Form ADV Part 2A for existing investment advisory clients.

1. Item 9 – Disciplinary Information.  If changes are made to Item 9, you must notify all clients of the change within 30 days and are not permitted to wait until the next “annual offer”.
2. An investment adviser firm must disclose material information that could affect a client’s advisory relationship with the firm.  In other words, an investment adviser firm does not need to blindly send a revised Form ADV Part 2A brochure to all investment advisory clients every time there is a change.  However, if the change impacts a particular set of investment advisory clients, the investment adviser firm needs to inform those investment advisory clients of the change.  See “Note”

For your reference, the following has been excerpted directly from the SEC’s Form ADV instructions (https://www.sec.gov/about/forms/formadv-part2.pdf).