Insights

By Peggy E. Chait

We have all learned the concept of assigning blame since we were children. Who among us did not chant at the top of our voices in unison, “Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar? Who me? Yes you. Couldn’t be. Then who?” Pointing our finger and the act of CYA (cover your a…) go hand in hand in our litigious society and Regulators encourage us to assign responsibility in order to make their jobs more lucrative and easier. Yes, I know about whistleblowers and the need to protect them for the betterment of society, and I am in agreement about the dangers of retaliation given their whistleblowing revelations. No contest there. What I would like to exami...

Rafael Beck, a Senior Managing Director of Integrated Solutions and member of the Stock Brokerage Committee of the New York State Society of CPAs (NYSSCPAs), will be speaking at an upcoming Auditor-FINOP panel hosted by the NYSSCPAs at their Broker-Dealer Conference to be held on May 4, 2022.

The panel discussions will include lessons from the most recent audit filing season. Topics to be covered are the 60 vs. 90 day filing deadline extension, staffing and scheduling challenges, accounting, reporting and regulatory changes, Footnote 74 and Exemption Reports, Pass Through Entity Tax treatment, inspections and other relevant issues. Additionally, the session will include a retrospective review...

For the fourth consecutive year, Integrated Investment Solutions (IIS), an independent alternative investment fund administrator announces the successful completion and issuance of its Accounting, Administration and Investor Services System and Organizational Controls (SOC) 1 Type 2 Report for the period October 1, 2020, through September 30, 2021. Our audit was once again conducted by a well-known internationally acclaimed accounting firm, which issued a report indicating its review and evaluation of the control environment for the services we provide. The report deemed that our control objectives were suitably designed and operated effectively.

We at Integrated Investment Solutions, a busi...

By Peggy E. Chait and Howard Spindel

For those of you that are old enough to remember the slogan, “when EF Hutton talks, people listen”, and the powerful effect the ad had on the general public, we can now attest that when the Wall Street community gathers in unity and speaks out, the regulators eventually listen.

We at Integrated Solutions are proud to be a member of the community that has been speaking up for a soon to be effective change in FINRA’s rule 1210. See FINRA Regulatory Notice 21-41. As a leading provider of financial accounting and compliance services to the financial services industry, we have written comment letters to FINRA on several occasions (June 30, 2020...

Michael Stupay, Senior Managing Director of Integrated Solutions will be a keynote speaker at the New York State Society of CPAs’ “Stock Brokerage Committee CPE Session” which will be held on December 2, 2021. The afternoon Tech Session webinar will specifically address, “Broker-Dealer-Hot Topics and Practical Considerations.”

Mr. Stupay brings decades of experience to the forum. He has been a Senior Managing Director of Integrated Solutions since 1994, which services a myriad of regulated Broker-Dealers and Registered Investment Advisors. He is also involved in Integrated Investment Solutions LLC, the Fund Administration arm of Integrated Solutions. He has been ...

Please follow the link below to download our comment letter.

Comment letter on Release No. 34-92183

By Peggy E. Chait

Piaget’s theory of “object permanence” recognized that a developmental milestone in an infant’s life is when they cognitively understand that an object still exists, even if the infant cannot see or perceive it. So too, exists the ability of a Broker/Dealer to function efficiently and effectively without anyone conducting an onsite Branch Office Inspection. It has never before been so well evidenced that the need for an onsite examination is a fossil of previous generations, and that the Covid-19 pandemic worked like a team of well-trained archeologists to uncover this. For FINRA requested information and documentation from remote locations, including...

By Peggy E. Chait

2020 is a year that most of us would like to forget for a myriad of reasons, the foremost being the COVID-19 pandemic. It has wreaked havoc on our nation, our citizens, livelihoods, and the faith we have in each other and our country. It has had far reaching implications in our Wall Street community. Many issues that affect the way we conduct our business have been addressed by the regulatory community. Here are a few that we had touched upon in our Comment Letter which was submitted to FINRA on February 16, 2021.

> Broker/Dealers can function effectively even when their employees are not physically located under one roof, in one state or perhaps one country. Connectivity ...

Michael Stupay, a Senior Managing Director of Integrated Solutions and a long-standing member of the Stock Brokerage Committee of the New York State Society of CPAs (NYSSCPAs), will be speaking at an upcoming Auditor-FINOP panel hosted by the NYSSCPAs at their Broker-Dealer Conference to be held on May 5, 2021.

The panel discussions will include lessons from the most recent audit filing season. Topics to be covered are the 60 vs. 90 day filing deadline extension, accounting, reporting and regulatory changes, CECL implementation and effect, Footnote 74 and Exemption Reports, PPP Loans impact on net capital, FINOP on-site visits guidance, inspections and other relevant issues. Additionally, the...

By Peggy E. Chait

In my younger days, like many women, I was somewhat attracted to the “bad boy.” He was somewhat aloof, ran a bit wild and didn’t conform to the rules. Yet, he was what I wanted. Perhaps when he grew up, he would turn into a law-abiding, conservative Wall Street gentleman, and by then I knew better.

I also remember as the Chief Compliance Officer and Chief Financial Officer of a NYSE Member Firm, back in the mid 1980’s, reviewing U4 forms and disciplinary histories. I have to confess that I was sometimes amused by what I saw disclosed. People that you would least suspect were anything other than upstanding citizens their entire lives, had their past dal...