Bates Group
Bates Group supports RIAs across registration, recurring program administration, annual reviews, regulatory examinations, filings, and targeted compliance projects. Its wider financial-services practice also includes remediation, investigations, litigation support, and data analytics for firms whose needs extend beyond routine compliance maintenance.
Overview
Bates Group offers RIA compliance consulting within a broader financial-services advisory business. Its RIA practice covers new registrations, recurring program administration, annual reviews, examination preparation and remediation, filings, and temporary projects. Other Bates practices address investigations, litigation support, and data analysis.
For an RIA buyer, that breadth means Bates can handle ordinary maintenance while also supporting less routine events. The provider may be especially relevant when a compliance issue intersects with an examination, formal remediation, outside counsel, or a data-intensive review.
Who it may suit
Bates works with both new and established advisers. A new firm may use it for SEC or state registration and initial program work. An existing RIA may use the annual-support offering to coordinate recurring filings, documents, meetings, and general consulting access.
The practice may also suit firms that need an independent annual review, a mock examination, help responding to actual findings, or a consultant appointed to assess a specific program deficiency. Smaller firms can purchase defined assistance, while larger organizations may draw on specialists from across Bates.
RIA compliance services
The RIA offering includes firm registration and registration transitions, annual compliance support, independent annual reviews, mock examinations, examination response and remediation, and regulatory filings. Bates also assists with policies and procedures, codes of ethics, continuity planning, training, vendor diligence, and marketing reviews.
Its filing work covers recurring adviser and representative submissions as well as certain ownership reports. Because filing requirements depend on a firm’s facts, clients should confirm the exact forms and jurisdictions included rather than relying on a general service label.
How the engagement works
Bates offers a core annual-support program with optional additions. The base scope includes recurring program-administration items and a block of consulting time, but the reviewed description expressly separates testing of individual policies and procedures unless that work is added.
Annual reviews, registrations, examinations, and independent-consultant matters can be scoped separately. Temporary needs may be handled as flat-fee or hourly projects with a defined statement of work.
What stands out
Bates’ distinguishing feature is the range around its RIA compliance practice. A client can obtain conventional registration and annual-review work, but the organization also has capabilities related to investigations, disputes, analytics, and regulator-directed remediation.
The published service descriptions are also comparatively specific about deliverables and exclusions. That makes it easier for a prospective client to identify where a base program ends and additional work begins.
What to clarify before contacting
An RIA should ask which activities are included in annual support, which require separate testing or implementation fees, and how general consulting hours are measured. It should confirm the proposed team, communication cadence, deliverables, and whether specialists from other Bates practices will participate.
For examinations or remediation, buyers should clarify reporting lines, interaction with outside counsel, regulator-facing responsibilities, follow-up obligations, and the fee model for work that expands after the initial review.