Key Takeaways
- According to SEC Form ADV data, ComplySci (Comply) is the compliance software firm registered advisers name most as keeping their books and records, by 269 advisers or 32% of those that name one.
- According to the same SEC data, MyComplianceOffice is second, named by 243 advisers; together the two reach 61% of advisers that name a compliance software firm.
- 834 of 16,850 SEC-registered advisers (5%) name a compliance software firm on Form ADV; most advisers name no outside record keeper at all, so these are shares of those that do.
- From each adviser's latest Form ADV filing through December 31, 2024, the latest period the SEC has published in full.
ComplySci (Comply) is the compliance software firm SEC-registered advisers name most as keeping their books and records, by 269 advisers or 32% of those that name one. MyComplianceOffice is second with 243, and StarCompliance third with 124.
Form ADV asks every SEC-registered adviser where its books and records are kept, and by whom. 834 of 16,850 registered advisers (5%) name a compliance software firm there, in filings through December 31, 2024, the latest period the SEC has published in full. The shares below are of those 834.
The compliance software firms RIAs name
Counted by the advisers that name each firm, each adviser once per firm. The last two columns follow those advisers to the SEC's monthly file of September 1, 2026: how many are still registered, and the median assets they manage now. The median, because a single very large adviser can carry a firm's total.
| Rank | Compliance software firm | Advisers naming it | Share of advisers that name a compliance software firm | Of those, still SEC-registered | Median assets those advisers manage now |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ComplySci (Comply) | 269 | 32.3% | 243 | $3.9 billion |
| 2 | MyComplianceOffice | 243 | 29.1% | 218 | $4.2 billion |
| 3 | StarCompliance | 124 | 14.9% | 119 | $6.7 billion |
| 4 | Red Oak Compliance Solutions | 115 | 13.8% | 110 | $15.0 billion |
| 5 | RegEd | 60 | 7.2% | 41 | $29.2 billion |
| 6 | Docupace | 54 | 6.5% | 39 | $3.2 billion |
| 7 | ACA ComplianceAlpha | 40 | 4.8% | 33 | $2.8 billion |
| 8 | SmartRIA | 23 | 2.8% | 18 | $394 million |
| 9 | Quest CE | 20 | 2.4% | 18 | $2.5 billion |
| 10 | BasisCode Compliance | 17 | 2.0% | 13 | $2.3 billion |
| 11 | FIS Protegent | 16 | 1.9% | 12 | $13.7 billion |
| 12 | Hadrius | 15 | 1.8% | 10 | $104 million |
| 13 | LexisNexis Bridger | 6 | 0.7% | 6 | $1.1 billion |
Download this table (CSV), free, with every filed name grouped under each firm.
This table counts firms. Which advisers name which firm, which of them added or dropped one in the last year, and each adviser's assets, clients and registration, are in the adviser-level workbook: one row per SEC-registered adviser, identified by its SEC number, updated monthly for a year.
Run an advisory firm? Check what this data says about yours, correct anything that is wrong, and see what firms your size use. For all four categories in one license, see the RIA technology data.
Who names a compliance software firm, by size
Advisers naming any of these 13 firms, still registered, by the assets they manage now.
| Assets the adviser manages now | Advisers naming a compliance software firm |
|---|---|
| Under $100 million | 35 |
| $100 million to $1 billion | 149 |
| $1 billion to $10 billion | 286 |
| $10 billion and over | 261 |
152 advisers name more than one compliance software firm, so the firms' counts add up to more than 834.
How the counts changed in a year
The SEC's release holds every filing, not just the latest, so the same count can be taken a year earlier: each adviser's latest filing up to December 31, 2023, against its latest up to December 31, 2024. 15,416 advisers appear in both, and 15,275 of them filed again in between.
| Compliance software firm | Advisers naming it, filings to December 31, 2023 | Filings to December 31, 2024 | Added by advisers in both | Dropped by advisers in both | Advisers new to the filings | Advisers gone from the filings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ComplySci (Comply) | 223 | 269 | 56 | 8 | 5 | 7 |
| MyComplianceOffice | 177 | 243 | 63 | 7 | 17 | 7 |
| StarCompliance | 102 | 124 | 21 | 5 | 8 | 2 |
| Red Oak Compliance Solutions | 98 | 115 | 18 | 0 | 3 | 4 |
| RegEd | 61 | 60 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| Docupace | 54 | 54 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| ACA ComplianceAlpha | 27 | 40 | 12 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| SmartRIA | 19 | 23 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| Quest CE | 15 | 20 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| BasisCode Compliance | 24 | 17 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 0 |
| FIS Protegent | 15 | 16 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
| Hadrius | 1 | 15 | 5 | 0 | 9 | 0 |
| LexisNexis Bridger | 7 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
- MyComplianceOffice gained the most, from 177 advisers to 243: 63 advisers in both filings added it, and 7 dropped it.
- ACA ComplianceAlpha grew fastest among firms named by at least 25 advisers, from 27 to 40.
- No firm named by at least 25 advisers lost more than 5% of them between the two filings.
- A drop is not always a departure. 4 of the 37 drops are by advisers whose newer filing names no outside record keeper at all, which reads more like a change in what they report than a change of firm.
Each firm's columns reconcile: its count a year earlier, plus the advisers that added it or arrived naming it, minus those that dropped it or left, is its count now.
What the filings can and cannot say
- Naming a firm is strong evidence of use. A firm named in Schedule D, Section 1.L keeps some of the adviser's records.
- Not naming one is evidence of nothing. Only 6,123 of 16,850 advisers (36%) name any outside record keeper at all. An adviser can run compliance software that keeps no records it needs to list, or keep those records itself.
- The filings are dated. The SEC publishes this part of Form ADV in periods; these run through December 31, 2024, and an adviser may have changed firms since.
- A change is a change in the filing. An adviser that stops naming a firm may have left it, or stopped listing it; the filing cannot tell the two apart.
What this means for compliance teams
Compliance software is where many advisers keep the records the Advisers Act asks of them: code-of-ethics attestations, personal trading reports, marketing reviews. That is why it shows up in Schedule D, Section 1.L at all. These pages cover the tools around it:
- Compliance monitoring and pre-trade clearance: the buyer's guide to the surveillance and pre-clearance tools in this category.
- Which communications archiving firms do RIAs use?: the records of email and messages, counted the same way.
Mapping where compliance obligations sit in the business? The Governance, Risk and Compliance Capability Model places them among the other compliance capabilities a firm runs.
More from Finantrix Atlas
- Which custodians do RIAs use?
- Fastest-growing RIAs
- Largest registered investment advisers, ranked by assets
How this was counted
This page takes each SEC-registered adviser's latest filing up to December 31, 2024, leaves out advisers whose latest filing is more than fifteen months older, and reads every record keeper listed in Schedule D, Section 1.L. Rows at a private residence, a branch or an affiliate are left out before any name is read. Names are as advisers typed them, grouped by company under published rules. Each adviser is counted once per firm.
Limits
- As of the SEC's latest full release. These filings run through December 31, 2024.
- Compliance software firms we group only. Smaller firms filed under their own spellings are not in these counts; every grouped spelling is in the free table.
- A record keeper, not every vendor. Schedule D, Section 1.L lists where records are kept. It is not a list of every system an adviser runs.
- Grouping is a judgment. The filed names under each firm are in the free table, so any grouping can be checked or redone.
Cite this
Free to quote, cite and republish, including the chart, with credit to Finantrix Atlas and a link to this page.
32% of SEC-registered advisers that name a compliance software firm on Form ADV name ComplySci (Comply), according to a Finantrix Atlas analysis of filings through December 31, 2024.
Suggested citation: Finantrix Atlas, "Which Compliance Software Firms Do RIAs Use?", from SEC Form ADV filings through December 31, 2024. https://www.finantrix.com/articles/ria-compliance-software
Embed the chart:
<a href="https://www.finantrix.com/articles/ria-compliance-software"><img src="https://www.finantrix.com/atlas/ria-compliance-software.png" alt="RIA compliance software firms by number of advisers, from Finantrix Atlas"></a>
<p>Chart: <a href="https://www.finantrix.com/articles/ria-compliance-software">Finantrix Atlas</a>, from SEC Form ADV data.</p>
Frequently asked questions
Q: Which compliance software firm do the most RIAs use? A: ComplySci (Comply), named by 269 SEC-registered advisers on Form ADV as keeping their books and records, 32% of those that name a compliance software firm.
Q: How many RIAs name a compliance software firm on Form ADV? A: 834 of 16,850 SEC-registered advisers (5%), in filings through December 31, 2024. Most advisers name no outside record keeper at all, which says nothing about whether they use compliance software.
Download the data
Two CSV files, free: the 13 rows on this page, and the full dataset of all 13 rows, as of December 31, 2024.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which compliance software firm do the most RIAs use?
ComplySci (Comply), named by 269 SEC-registered advisers on Form ADV as keeping their books and records, 32% of those that name a compliance software firm.
How many RIAs name a compliance software firm on Form ADV?
834 of 16,850 SEC-registered advisers (5%), in filings through December 31, 2024. Most advisers name no outside record keeper at all, which says nothing about whether they use compliance software.