Kestra Compliance Executive Joins Essential Edge To Bolster Compliance Consulting Team
Regulatory and compliance consultancy Essential Edge Compliance Outsourcing Services announced the addition of Robert Franklin as Senior Manager to enhance the firm’s compliance consulting capabilities in close coordination with Sander Ressler, Founder and Managing Partner of Essential Edge, who also serves as WSR’s Expert Columnist, Compliance & Regulatory Affairs.
Franklin’s duties will include compliance branch inspections, problem resolution services and consulting to advisors affiliated with IBDs, OSJs, insurance practices and RIAs, as well as leading teams that support in-house compliance departments.
Lamy, New Mexico-based Essential Edge has more than 10 compliance professionals around the country. Its services are designed to identify and resolve compliance issues in branch office sales and operations for IBDs before the issues escalate.
“We are thrilled to welcome someone with Rob’s experience to the firm. Having grown up in the regulatory and compliance areas of wealth management over the past 24 years, he has seen and done it all,” said Ressler. “His hands-on knowledge, problem-solving expertise and unique perspective are the exact skill set clients look for with Essential Edge. Rob will be a great addition to our senior team and provide us with even more capacity to continue taking on larger and increasingly complex projects for firms across the wealth management space.”
Prior to Essential Edge, Franklin worked for 10 years at Kestra Financial as Assistant Vice President and AML Officer, leading the firm’s anti-money laundering efforts, branch examinations, investigations and internal testing, as well as serving as the firm’s Privacy Officer.
Before Kestra, Franklin held regulatory and compliance roles at various financial services firms including Moody Securities, Nationwide Securities, Williams Financial Group, Sanders Morris Harris and NFP Securities.
“It’s a refreshing change, and exciting prospect, to be able to share my expertise broadly with Essential Edge’s impressive roster of clients,” Franklin said. “The regulatory landscape has changed dramatically in the recent past, and that rate of change shows no signs of slowing. Firms in our industry want to do the right thing, but sometimes they need outside support to ensure their compliance programs are optimized. That’s where we come in and where I can leverage my hard-won experience to really make a difference.”
Franklin will join Essential Edge before the 2023 FINRA Annual Conference from May 16-18 in Washington, D.C., where it will be an exhibitor. Ressler and other Essential Edge personnel will be available in person to meet attendees.
James Miller, Contributing Editor and Research Analyst at Wealth Solutions Report, can be reached at ContributingEd@wealthsolutionsreport.com.
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