Breakout Sessions
B 1 - Third-Party Vendor Oversight Under the SEC/FINRA Microscope.
The SEC's increased focus on third-party risk has raised the bar for how wealth firms document, monitor, and manage vendor relationships. For heads of operations, vendor oversight is no longer just a procurement function. This session examines what a defensible oversight program looks like today and what attendees are doing versus what their policies say they are doing.
Discussion Questions
- How is your vendor oversight program currently structured — and who owns it, operations or compliance?
- What does your annual vendor review process look like, and do you have a tiering system for critical versus non-critical vendors?
- Have you had an SEC or FINRA examiner request vendor documentation — and were you ready for what they asked for?
- What happens when a critical vendor is acquired or fails? Do you have documented contingency plans, and have you ever had to activate one?
Facilitated By Head of Operations — Identity Withheld
Format Peer-led · No slides · Chatham House Rules
B2-Workflow Automation: Where STP Is Delivering ROI and Where It Isn't.
The question is no longer whether to automate — it's which processes are delivering measurable return on investment, and which projects have stalled, been abandoned, or create new problems. This session is a candid peer-reviewed look at where automation is working and where it isn't.
Discussion Questions
- What are the two or three automation wins you would point to as genuinely transformational for your operations team? And why?
- Where have you seen automation projects fail to deliver expected ROI — and what were the root causes?
- How are you thinking about AI-assisted automation? Are you piloting anything, and if so, how are you managing the compliance implications?
- How do you measure the impact of automation on headcount decisions and your overall talent strategy?
Facilitated By Head of Operations — Identity Withheld
Format Peer-led · No slides · Chatham House Rules