State of Compliance 2025: What Firms Need to Know

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.

If you're keeping up with the news, you know that 2025 has already brought several significant shifts to the compliance world. Recent developments suggest a trend toward increased centralization in regulatory oversight, including executive involvement in significant rule changes.

Beyond the evolution of enforcement priorities, client behaviors are changing, and marketing and digital communication strategies are adapting. As a result, the way firms approach compliance is shifting.

Here are the top trends to consider as you set your compliance priorities for 2025.

You're not super likely to get pulled over for having an expired license plate tag. But if you run a red? Lights and sirens. And when the officer runs your license, you'll likely be cited for expired tags – and maybe an old unpaid parking ticket – in addition to your reckless driving violation.

This is a useful analogy for where enforcement seems to be headed. Recent enforcement patterns suggest a possible emphasis on abuse cases over minor policy violations, but that doesn't mean compliance teams should ignore procedural risks. Recordkeeping failures are still wrong.

To get ahead of these shifts, firms may consider developing policies and procedures that are fit for purpose – which is to say, designed to detect and flag specific things on specific channels. For example, you could set an alert to help detect channel hopping, which can cause issues if an agent or advisor tries to move a conversation from an approved channel to an unapproved channel.

Adopting this approach to supervision can help you detect and prevent fraudulent activities while remaining compliant with broader regulatory guidelines.

Your marketing department is going through a major shift.

Clients aren't just looking for firms on Google anymore; they're turning to AI-driven search tools like ChatGPT and social media to learn about investment strategies, banks with competitive rates, and the best insurance providers.

People are actively seeking financial guidance like never before. Data reveals a massive surge in searches for financial advisors, reaching the highest levels since the start of the pandemic. This again shows that serving as a trusted advisor may present opportunities for firms in times of uncertainty.

To keep up, you need to be able to supervise new channels(WhatsApp, direct messaging), different content formats (video, text, voice, interactive content), and AI-generated content while making sure your compliance program can handle the increased volume.

Effective management can be supported by:

• Clear procedures for evaluating new digital engagement channels. Defining what elements must be present in order to roll out a new channel is a critical first step.

• Platform-specific policies catered to various channels. Review and risk-assessment processes are different for social media vs. text messaging and need to be defined.

• AI-driven review systems to monitor content efficiently. Thoughtfully implemented AI tools can help you boost productivity and streamline compliance workflows.

• Off-channel monitoring systems, which are designed to detect any messaging that's errantly taking place on non-allowed channels.

Firms with compliance teams that use built-for-purpose technology tools to scale and successfully support marketing's 'be everywhere' strategy have a lot to gain – including recruiting power, productivity tools that drive field success, and more new business.

As the field connects with clients in more places and benefits from increased engagement, compliance teams become increasingly nervous about the potential for reputational harm.

In today's polarized, highly charged environment, a single word in a social post — even if unintentional — can severely damage your brand. Firms must strike a delicate balance between empowering their field to build a personal brand and maintaining compliance standards.

Many firms are implementing proactive supervision strategies, combining monitoring software (hard controls) with robust advisor training (soft controls) to mitigate risk before it escalates.

For example, a well-tailored lexicon (hard control) is a simple tool that flags specific keywords so compliance can catch a potential violation before it becomes public. Lexicons save time by making sure your team stays focused on the highest-risk activities. At the same time, channel-specific field enablement (soft control) helps reduce the number of violations that get flagged.

AI opens up exciting opportunities to boost efficiency but may also raise compliance questions — especially around explainability and oversight. Ideally, firms will want to maintain a clear understanding of how their AI tools are working in order to better navigate privacy and security expectations. So, how might you approach that?

Firms can create a cross-functional AI committee that includes compliance, marketing, and business development folks. The committee gives everyone who has a stake in the success of your deployment of AI a seat at the table. Together, you can discuss the pros and cons of rolling out a specific AI functionality. AI success is much more likely when everyone's working together from day one. – not just for any one firm but for the industry at large.

This year marks a pivotal moment for compliance teams. With likely fewer procedural enforcement challenges to navigate, firms have a unique opportunity to proactively refine their compliance programs. What you do in 2025 will likely define your firm's ability to thrive in 2026 and beyond.

Consider using this year to strategically plan ways to:

• Balance reputational risk with compliance supervision

• Define fit-for-purpose policies for digital communication

• Expand compliance workflows to match marketing's 'be everywhere' strategy

• Craft a plan for the responsible use of AI

• Use AI-driven technology to scale your compliance program

Take advantage of this opportunity. The more proactive you are today, the more prepared your firm will be to meet client expectations and outperform competitors for years to come.

To start, learn why having a 'be everywhere' marketing strategy matters so much.