September 10, 2026. Ocho Advisor insights

What the Marketing Rule actually lets you say

Testimonials and endorsements have been allowed for SEC-registered advisers since 2022. Most advisors still act as if they are banned, and the ones who use them often miss the disclosures that make them legal.

The SEC's Marketing Rule replaced the old advertising and cash solicitation rules with one framework. The headline change is that testimonials from clients and endorsements from non-clients are permitted, with conditions. The conditions are where practices get into trouble.

The disclosures every testimonial needs

• Whether the person giving it is a client or not.
• Whether they were compensated, in cash or anything else, and by whom.
• Any material conflict of interest the person has because of their relationship with you.

Clear and prominent means near the testimonial, in the same medium, not in a footer. A video bio that includes a client saying kind things needs the disclosure on screen or spoken, not on a separate web page.

What is still off the table

• Untrue or misleading statements, and true statements that leave out what would make them not misleading.
• Cherry-picked performance, hypothetical performance without the required context, and gross-of-fee performance without net.
• Third-party ratings without the date, the rater, and whether you paid for it.

The workflow that keeps you clean

Every piece of marketing gets reviewed, disclosed, and archived before it goes out. Not because a regulator will read your LinkedIn post tomorrow, but because at your next exam you will be asked to produce it, with the date and the approval. A practice that can do that in a minute has a very different exam than one that cannot.

The rule did not make marketing harder. It made undocumented marketing harder.

State-registered advisers and hybrid representatives under a broker-dealer have their own overlays. Check with your compliance consultant or your firm before relying on any of the above.

Want this applied to your practice? Run the Practice Pulse or see Ocho Tools.