SEC’s Third Marketing Rule Risk Alert Puts Testimonials, Influencers, and Ratings Squarely in Exam Scope
On December 16, 2025, the SEC’s Division of Examinations published its third risk alert in under three years on the Advisers Act Marketing Rule, this one narrowing in on testimonials and endorsements and third-party ratings. The recurrence of alerts for June 2023, April 2024, and now December 2025, on the same rule tells you examiners keep finding the same violations, and that this isn’t a checkbox compliance item that goes away after one review cycle.
The findings: advisers are still failing to serve required disclosures at the moment a testimonial or endorsement goes live, not after; websites feature client quotes and star ratings with no disclosure at all; and firms are compensating “ineligible persons” including social media influencers, referral partners, and refer-a-friend program participants for endorsements without verifying eligibility or applying required oversight. The alert makes clear that a hyperlink to a disclosures page doesn’t satisfy the rule; the required disclosure must be as prominent as the testimonial itself.
What this means for fund marketers: If your firm runs any client testimonial program, uses “as seen in” third-party ratings, works with finance influencers, or has a referral/”refer-a-friend” incentive anywhere in its investor acquisition funnel, treat this as a prompt to audit now, not at your next exam. Marketing and compliance teams should independently review every page, post, and pitch deck carrying a testimonial or rating for: disclosure present at first display (not buried in a footer or reachable only by click-through); documented eligibility checks on anyone being compensated to promote the firm; and a due-diligence file substantiating any third-party rating used. This is the SEC’s third bite at the same apple in three years a strong signal it will show up in your next exam module regardless of AUM or fund structure. For marketing teams under pressure to lean harder into digital distribution and influencer-adjacent channels to reach allocators, this alert is a reminder that the Marketing Rule’s guardrails apply with equal force online as off.
