Brochure Rule

Requires delivery of the Form ADV Part 2A brochure before or at the time of entering into an advisory contract, and of each Part 2B supplement before or at the time the supervised person it covers begins to provide advisory services to the client. Where the brochure has materially changed since the last annual updating amendment, the adviser must deliver within 120 days of fiscal year end either the updated brochure or a summary of the material changes with an offer of the brochure, the website address (if any), the e-mail address (if any) and telephone number for obtaining it, and the address of the SEC's Investment Adviser Public Disclosure website. Disciplinary information that is added or materially revised has to be delivered promptly rather than waiting for the annual cycle. Brochure delivery does not apply to a registered investment company or business development company client under a contract meeting section 15(c) of the Investment Company Act, or to clients receiving only impersonal advice costing less than $500 a year; the supplement exceptions also cover certain officers and employees. 75 FR 49268 (12 August 2010), amended at 87 FR 22447.

• 01120 days from fiscal year end for the annual delivery, against 90 days for the Form ADV amendment itself under Rule 204-1. Two deadlines, thirty days apart, off the same fiscal year end.
• 02A summary of material changes is enough for the annual delivery only if it comes with the offer and the website, e-mail, telephone and IAPD details for getting the brochure.
• 03Disciplinary changes are delivered promptly, outside the annual cycle.
• 04Rule 204-2(a)(14) keeps the delivery records, so a delivery nobody can evidence is also a books and records finding.

• Annual offer made but never sent, or sent with no record of when or to whom.
• The brochure on the website not matching the one on file with the Commission.
• New disciplinary disclosure held until the next annual mailing.