Jay Esche, Compliance Consultant
Mr. Esche has over 25 years experience working in the securities industry. He spent 16 of those years as a securities regulator with the State of Florida, Office of Financial Regulation (“OFR”). He began his working for OFR in August of 1990. Jay was responsible for onsite broker dealer (“BD”) and investment advisor (“IA”) examinations, testifying in depositions and administrative hearings and writing target letters, examination reports, and letters of admonishment. Mr. Esche was promoted to the position of Area Financial Manager of the securities examination staff located in OFR’s West Palm Beach field office in October of 1997.
In 2006 Mr. Esche was hired by Capital Markets Compliance®, LLC. (“CMC”) as a Senior Associate Consultant. Mr. Esche’s experience at CMC included the drafting and supervision of BD supervisory procedures, RIA supervisory procedures, performing regulatory exams and testing’s as well as general compliance consulting. Jay served as the Chairman of CMC’s Written Supervisory Procedures (“WSP”) Committee. In this role he was responsible for supervising the process of keeping the firm’s BD and IA WSP up-to-date based on FINRA, SEC, MSRB, FinCEN, and NASAA releases of new rules and interpretations. Jay has extensive experience in providing Books & Records exams, mock exams, AML Testing and consulting services to BDs and IAs
Larry Niland, Compliance Consultant
Larry serves as an independent compliance consultant of Regulatory Maven. He has more than 38 years of combined experience in insurance, securities, investment management, fee-based planning, and broker-dealer and investment advisor compliance issues.
Since retiring in 2007 from John Hancock Financial Network where he served as Chief Compliance officer for Signator Investors, Inc., its US retail broker dealer and investment advisor, Larry has focused exclusively on consulting with firms on insurance and securities compliance issues working mostly with insurance-affiliated broker dealers and advisors. He has authored many articles on annuity suitability, annual testing, due diligence, outside business activities, and branch supervision and inspections. While at John Hancock Larry was a frequent speaker on the in-house video training network and created a unique training DVD of a mock FINRA arbitration, highlighting suitability, client file and supervisory issues using examples drawn from actual cases. Prior to becoming Chief Compliance Officer, Larry held a number of positions at Hancock including Director of; Marketing, Management Development, Producer Training and Independent Distribution.
Specialties: Policies & Procedures; Annuity and Investment Product Suitability, Branch Office Supervision; Annual Testing Programs; Supervisory Controls; Product Due Diligence; Producer Training; Assessing Compliance Programs; Outside Business Activities Review and Supervision; Rep On-Boarding, Licensing, & Registration.
Shawn Craig, Compliance Consultant
Shawn serves as an independent compliance consultant of Regulatory Maven. He has more than 12 years of combined experience in the disciplines of investment management, personal financial planning, and in broker-dealer regulatory compliance.
From October 2004 to April 2013, Shawn held several examiner positions with the Boston District Office of FINRA (formerly NASD), including Principal Examiner since October 2011. During Shawn’s tenure with FINRA, he conducted moderate-to-high complexity examinations with demonstrated success in areas such as net capital computations, product due diligence, AML compliance, supervisory controls, regulatory research and emerging issues, independent and bank broker-dealer models, mutual fund and insurance distributors, as well as boutique private placement and M&A compliance.
Prior to joining FINRA, Shawn spent a combined 4 years as a fee-based financial planner with American Express Financial Advisors (now Ameriprise) and MassMutual Financial Group, and a year performing VA property management and residential appraisals as an assistant at a local appraisal company. In addition, Shawn is a prior service U.S. Marine and Iraq War veteran. He was honorably discharged as a non-commissioned officer from the Individual Ready Reserve in 2006.
Shawn received a B.A. in International Relations with a second major in Business Administration in 1996 from Roanoke College, a private liberal-arts college located in Salem, Virginia, and an M.S. in Finance in 2013 from Suffolk University in Boston, MA. Shawn is currently a 2013 Level I Candidate in the CFA Program.
Alan J. Besnoff, CFP ®, CHFC, CLU
Alan J. Besnoff, CFP, ChFC, CLU is the founder of Securities Expert Witness & Litigation Support, LLC and serves as a securities expert witness and litigation consultant throughout the United States. Mr. Besnoff has over thirty years’ experience with securities, investments, financial planning and insurance at the financial advisor, supervisory and managing principal levels. Mr. Besnoff is an expert witness and FINRA Arbitrator.
He has conducted over 1,000 classes, presentations, and workshops for financial professionals, university students, and consumers.
Mr. Besnoff is an articulate and persuasive presenter and speaker with a thorough understanding of FINRA and SEC regulations.
A Registered Principal, award-winning past president of his National Association of Insurance & Financial Advisors (NAIFA) chapter, who has earned several prestigious, nationally recognized certifications, Mr. Besnoff is a dedicated and knowledgeable professional of the securities and financial services industry.
