February Focus: Compliance Deadlines, Tax Season, and How VOS Keeps You Organized
February is one of those months that can quietly spiral for financial advisors.
Tax documents begin to arrive. Compliance deadlines loom closer. And suddenly, tasks that felt like future problems are very much today’s responsibility.
At Virtual Outsource Solutions (VOS), this is the time of year when organization and process matter most. Our role isn’t to replace your compliance professionals or prepare filings for you, but to manage the workflow, gather the right information, and keep everything documented and audit-ready, so nothing falls through the cracks.
Here’s how we support advisors during this critical stretch.
ADV Delivery: Due March 31 (and Easier With the Right Workflow)
ADV delivery is one of those requirements that every advisor knows is coming, but many still find stressful, especially newer advisors or firms that have grown quickly.
VOS offers a structured ADV workflow designed to:
Guide advisors who have never completed ADV delivery before
Support firms completing an annual ADV refresh
Clearly separate what we manage from what requires your review and approval
We don’t complete or submit the ADV for you. What we do is manage the process end to end:
Gathering required information and updates
Organizing disclosures and supporting materials
Creating a clear checklist that shows:
✔ Items completed
⚠ Items that need advisor input
📌 Items requiring final review
This ensures nothing is missed and gives you confidence that the process is documented and repeatable year over year.
Form CRS: Organized, Delivered, and Audit-Ready
Form CRS may be standardized by the SEC, but how it’s delivered, stored, and documented is where many firms fall short. VOS helps advisors maintain the most current version of Form CRS and ensure it is:
Stored in your CRM and your document manager
Tagged appropriately
Easily retrievable in the event of an audit
We help confirm that delivery records are properly tracked and organized, not just saved somewhere and forgotten. The goal is simple: if you’re audited, you can show exactly what was delivered, when, and to whom.
Privacy Policy: Don’t Let This Be an Afterthought
Your privacy policy is another small detail that can create big issues if overlooked. As part of our February support, we help advisors confirm the recommended privacy policy is:
Displayed in the website footer
Included in email signatures where appropriate
Update your website and email signature if changes are needed
This is one of those compliance-adjacent tasks that’s easy to delay, but simple to address with the right support.
Tax Season Support: Gathering 1099s and Custodian Forms
While compliance tasks ramp up, tax season is also in full swing. Custodians begin releasing 1099s, consolidated tax statements and supporting tax documents.
VOS can help by:
Gathering tax forms as they’re released
Organizing them by client or account
Ensuring documents are available and easy to access
This doesn’t replace your tax professionals, but it does reduce last-minute scrambling and client confusion.
What VOS Does Best: Manage the Process
Across all of these services, our role is consistent:
We manage workflows
We organize documentation
We clarify responsibilities
We create repeatable systems
We don’t give legal or compliance advice. We don’t submit filings. What we do is make sure you’re prepared, organized, and supported, so deadlines don’t turn into distractions from serving clients.
February is about setting yourself up for a smoother spring. With the right processes in place now, March 31, and the rest of the year, feels a lot more manageable.
Visit www.thevosteam.com/what-we-do to discover more ways we help advisors.