Compliance Prime New York · Established MMXIV · Vol. XII Friday, May 8, 2026
Compliance Prime Engage the practice

№ A regulatory advisory practice

Compliance, considered.

Compliance Prime is a New York–based advisory firm serving banks, broker-dealers, and registered investment advisers. We translate evolving regulation into durable operating discipline — without the audit-firm theatrics, and without the binder nobody opens twice.

Founded 2014
Practice areas Six
Mandates per quarter Limited
Office Lower Manhattan

§ I · On the Practice

A boutique discipline, deliberately small.

Founded in 2014 by a small team of former examiners and in-house counsel, Compliance Prime was built on a belief that regulatory work is a discipline of judgment, not paperwork. We take a measured view of the rule, the firm, and the gap between them — and we close it. Quietly, where possible. Decisively, where required.

Our clients are mid-sized financial institutions navigating active examination cycles, perimeter expansions, or quiet remediations. We work in long engagements rather than billable hours, and we keep our roster small on purpose. A practice like ours is sustained by the cases we decline as much as the cases we accept.

We are not a law firm; we do not provide legal advice. We are a firm of compliance practitioners — most of us once sat at the regulator's table — and we make that distinction the centre of everything we put our name to.

§ II · Practice Areas

Six disciplines. One standard of work.

Each engagement is led by a principal and is bounded by a written scope and a fixed fee. We do not bill in tenths of an hour, and we do not staff a partner above three associates beneath.

  1. Anti-Money Laundering & BSA

    Drafting, refining, and stress-testing BSA/AML programs for institutions of every charter. Independent program reviews, suspicious-activity calibration, and OFAC governance written for the examiner sitting across the table.

  2. KYC & Customer Due Diligence

    Onboarding frameworks, risk-rating methodologies, and enhanced due diligence playbooks built for examiner scrutiny. Beneficial ownership review under the Corporate Transparency Act, calibrated to your customer mix.

  3. Broker-Dealer & FINRA

    Written supervisory procedures, examination preparation, and Rule 3110 supervision builds. Quiet remediations a specialty. We have stood next to a CCO during 8210 inquiries more times than we'd like to count.

  4. SEC & Investment Adviser

    Form ADV preparation, Marketing Rule alignment, custody review, and annual compliance program testing under Rule 206(4)-7. We work with both newly-registered advisers and those preparing for routine exam.

  5. Regulatory Change Management

    Reading the Federal Register so you don't have to. Quarterly briefings, mapped impact assessments, and policy redlines drafted for senior management — not for the regulator's bookshelf.

  6. Independent Compliance Audits

    Periodic, unconflicted reviews against published criteria — delivered as written reports your board, your regulator, and your auditors can use. We attach our name; we do not attach footnotes hedging it.

§ III · How we work

Long engagements. Smaller rosters.

i.

Written scope, fixed fee.

Every engagement begins with a memorandum that names the regulator, the rule, the deliverable, and the fee. We do not maintain a billable-hours model. The scope is the contract.

ii.

Principal-led, throughout.

The principal who answers your first call is the principal who answers your last. We do not pyramid associates onto regulatory work; the discipline does not survive the dilution.

iii.

Embedded, where appropriate.

For longer mandates, a Compliance Prime principal will second into the firm one to two days a week. Where appropriate, we don't. The choice is yours and is not a billing decision.

iv.

A roster we can defend.

We accept a limited number of new mandates each quarter. If we cannot place a senior practitioner on your matter, we will say so on the first call rather than the third invoice.

§ IV · The Practice

Principals.

  • Hadley R. Marsh
    Founding Principal

    Formerly enforcement counsel, NY State Department of Financial Services. Columbia Law.

  • Yusuf S. Adeyemi
    Principal, Broker-Dealer Practice

    Twenty-one years at three FINRA member firms, including six as CCO. Series 7, 24, 53, 79.

  • Imogen Whitfield
    Principal, AML & Sanctions

    Former senior examiner, FRBNY. CAMS, CGSS. Reads OFAC FAQs for pleasure.

  • Of Counsel
    Six advisors

    A standing roster of subject-matter advisors — former regulators, former CCOs, and a small number of academic appointees — engaged by the matter, never by the hour.

§ V · Engage the practice

We answer correspondence within one business day.

By post

Compliance Prime, LLC
30 Broad Street, Suite 1422
New York, NY 10004
United States

By appointment

The practice keeps regular hours Monday through Friday, 9 to 6 Eastern. Initial consultations are by appointment and remain without obligation through the first hour of conversation.