RIA COMPLIANCE CONSULTANTS - Key Persons
Autumn Lehn serves as a Compliance Analyst for RIA Compliance Consultants, Inc. She assists the Senior Compliance Consultants with day-to-day operations, including but is not limited to, document drafting, annual amendments, submission of regulatory documents, and client communications.
Bryan Hill - Founder, President
Bryan Hill is the founder of RIA Compliance Consultants, Inc. As President of RIA Compliance Consultants, Bryan leads a team of compliance consultants that assists registered investment advisors with meeting their regulatory obligations.
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.
Bryan graduated with distinction from the University of Nebraska College of Law. He has successfully completed the Securities Industry Institute at Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania and passed regulatory exams including the Series 7, Series 24, Series 65, and Series 66. Bryan has earned the Accredited Investment Fiduciary® (AIF®) professional designation. He has served as a FINRA arbitrator and has been trained as a mediator. Bryan is an approved investment adviser continuing education ("IAR CE") instructor and teaches courses for IAR CE credit throughout the year. Before attending law school, Bryan was an assistant to a U.S. Congressman. While studying political science as an undergraduate at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln, Bryan worked as a research assistant for the Nebraska Legislative Research Division.
As explained in greater detail below, RIA Compliance Consultants is not a law firm, and Bryan does not provide legal services through RIA Compliance Consultants.
Cherry Pick - Chief Compliance Officer
Job Titles:
- Kansas Investment Advisor
Job Titles:
- Senior Vice President
- Investment Advisor Compliance
- Senior Vice President and Senior Compliance Consultant
Jarrod James serves as a Senior 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® (IACCP®) and has passed the Series 7, Series 24, and Series 66 examinations. Jarrod is also an approved investment adviser continuing education ("IAR CE") instructor and teaches courses for IAR CE credit throughout the year.
Shelly Welch joined RIA Compliance Consultants in February 2022 as a Compliance Analyst. She is responsible for assisting the Senior Compliance Consultants with performing annual reviews of compliance programs and mock regulatory exams of investment adviser clients. She will also prepare IARD (Investment Adviser Registration Depository) filings, Form ADV updates, and review advertisements and other materials submitted by clients for compliance with the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 and various state securities acts.
Shelly recently retired as Chief of Registration from the Office of the Kansas Securities Commissioner after serving 19 years with the agency. Her career there included almost 10 years as a Compliance Examiner auditing state-registered investment advisers and 9 years conducting application reviews, investigations, and oversight of broker-dealer, investment adviser, and regulated investment company registrations, as well as private adviser and offering exemptions. During her years at the Kansas Securities Commissioner's office, Shelly presented numerous seminars for registered investment advisers and their investment adviser representatives ("IARs"), mentored other regulatory examiners, served as a speaker and consultant for the Women & Money Library Series, and was a NASAA (North American Securities Administrators Association) Central Zone representative. She has also successfully passed the Series 63 exam.
Shelly has a paralegal degree from Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas and was previously a litigation paralegal for a private law firm and the Kansas Department of Administration Legal Section. Prior to joining the Securities Commissioner's Office, she was a Special Agent for the Kansas Attorney General's Consumer Protection Division. She is excited to join the team at RIA Compliance Consultants and help our clients comply with the investment adviser rules that govern their business operations.
Job Titles:
- Vice President
- Senior Compliance Consultant and Director of Business Development
Tammy Emsick, Senior Compliance Consultant and Director of Business Development for RIA Compliance Consultants, Inc., is in charge of the firm's marketing and business development initiatives. She serves as a point-of-first contact for new RIA Compliance Consultants, Inc. clients. Her strong industry background is used to help determine appropriate consulting services for investment advisor firms based on their unique, individual circumstances. Tammy is also responsible for coordinating and organizing compliance webinars hosted by RIA Compliance Consultants, Inc. and publishing the firm's newsletters and blogs.
Job Titles:
- Senior Consultant
- Inc. in 2016 As a Consultant
Teresa O'Grady joined RIA Compliance Consultants, Inc. in 2016 as a Consultant. She is responsible for new investment advisor registrations, preparing and amending compliance manuals, email review, annual compliance reviews and any additional items necessary to help develop and assist investment advisor firms and representatives in meeting their regulatory obligations.
Teresa began her career in the financial services industry in 1989, when she joined one of the largest national clearing broker-dealers as a Mutual Fund Analyst. There she started the Mutual Fund Department, which has now grown exponentially in size. She went on to become a Regional Supervisor at a national broker-dealer and investment advisory firm in 1992, where she was responsible for all facets of compliance and supervision for approximately 150 registered representatives all across the US. In 1999, she continued her compliance career taking a position as a Compliance Analyst at a long standing introducing broker-dealer firm, which in part was eventually acquired by a Nebraska-based broker-dealer and investment advisory firm headquartered in Lincoln, NE. Teresa was asked to join the new firm in 2005 as a Compliance Manager, after helping to wind down and eventually close the former company. She was promoted to Senior Compliance Officer in 2015. Her duties included employee on-boarding and training; managing all facets of the systems and filings for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, FINRA, MSRB and state regulators; handling all daily compliance issues with resolution; subpoenas, complaints and document requests; employee trading; email review; regulatory and firm element continuing education; advertising/correspondence/qualified plan presentation review ; books and records retention and storage; WSP policy updates, management and dissemination; supervision of insurance licensing, trade review and internal audits; and many other tasks for the broker dealer, the registered investment adviser, the public finance department and the retirement plans business units.
Teresa has taken and passed the Series 7 (General Securities Representative), Series 24 (General Securities Principal), Series 53 (Municipal Securities Principal), Series 63 (Uniform Securities Agent State Law), Series 65 (Uniform Investment Adviser Law), Series 66 (Uniform Combined State Law) exams. She has also earned the Series 79 (Investment Banking Representative) and Series 99 (Operations Professional) exams.
Teresa received Employee of the Year awards in 2012 and 2015 at her former employer. She is a member of the SIFMA Compliance and Legal Division and the National Association of Professional Women. She is a team player and very excited to join the RIA Compliance Consultants team.
Job Titles:
- Senior Consultant
- Senior Compliance Consultant
Tom Zielinski serves as a Senior Compliance Consultant for RIA Compliance Consultants, Inc.
His compliance consulting practice at RIA Compliance Consultants includes registering 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, preparing annual amendments, and conducting compliance reviews.
Tom is an experienced securities industry professional. His career in the securities industry began over twenty-five years ago. During this tenure, Tom has successfully passed the Series 4 (Registered Options Principal), Series 7 (General Securities Representative), Series 24 (General Securities Principal), and Series 27 (Financial and Operational Principal) examinations and helped build the compliance functions of three nationwide financial services firms from the ground floor.
Since approximately 1987 Tom has concentrated upon compliance issues related to the rules issued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, self-regulatory organizations and state securities regulators. In particular, Tom has served as the chief compliance officer of a national clearing broker-dealer and two separate independent broker-dealers and their related investment advisory firms. In addition he has held the role of vice president of risk management for a national broker-dealer and investment advisory firm. In these roles, Tom was responsible for all compliance and regulatory matters along with the creation and documentation of the compliance programs. He has gained extensive experience with the securities industry regulators through researching, negotiating and responding to regulatory requests and investigations. During his career, Tom has had the honor of working with and mentoring a number of compliance professionals that now work with broker-dealers and investment advisors across the country.
Tom has a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Nebraska at Omaha majoring in accounting and banking and finance.
Job Titles:
- Marketing & Compliance Tools Analyst