Most compliance failures at small advisers are not bad decisions. They are deadlines that slipped because no one owned them. A compliance calendar is the unglamorous tool that turns a scatter of recurring obligations into scheduled, assigned tasks, and it prevents more findings than almost anything else.
A small adviser's calendar typically includes the annual updating amendment to Form ADV, delivery of updated disclosures and Form CRS, the annual review of the compliance program, code-of-ethics and personal-trading reviews, the annual privacy notice, and any state renewals and filings. Add periodic marketing reviews, cybersecurity checks, and books-and-records housekeeping, and the year fills quickly.
The obligations are not individually hard; they are just numerous and time-bound, and a firm without a system relies on memory, which fails. A living calendar with owners and due dates converts compliance from a scramble into a routine. Examiners can often tell within minutes whether a firm runs on a calendar or on luck.
The calendar itself needs an owner, usually the CCO, and a habit of reviewing it. It should be updated when rules change or the business does. A calendar built once and ignored is no better than none.
Schedule the obligations, or the obligations schedule your findings.
Greenridge L&C Advisors is a compliance consultancy, not a law firm. This is general information, not legal advice.