Form ADV-E Surprise Examination Filing Website

In December 2009, the SEC approved amendments to the custody rule under the Investment Advisers

Act of 1940 and related forms. The amendments, among other things, require certain registered invest-

ment advisers that have custody of client funds or securities to undergo an annual surprise examination

by an independent public accountant to verify client funds and securities.

Form ADV-E is used as a cover page for a certificate of accounting of securities and funds of which the

investment adviser has custody (surprise exam report). Form ADV-E contains both information about the

adviser and the surprise exam conducted.

The surprise exam report is created by an independent public accountant after a surprise inspection of

the adviser. The Form ADV-E filing and the surprise examination report or statement filed by the ac-

countant is made available to the public on www.adviserinfo.sec.gov.

Form ADV-E Surprise Examination Filing Process for Public Accountants

The first step in the ADV-E filing process occurs when the adviser initiates a Form ADV-E on the IARD

website. After the adviser initiates the filing, the accountant will be sent an email requesting confirmation

of the accountant’s email address provided by the adviser and that the accountant intends to conduct a

surprise exam on the adviser.

Upon confirmation of the email address, the accountant will receive a second email containing a unique,

secure link to the Form ADV-E Surprise Examination Filing Website along with instructions for uploading

a surprise examination report or a termination statement.

Individuals, firms, and data mentioned in these materials are fictitious and are presented exclusively for purposes of illustration or

example.

Form ADV-E Surprise Examination Filing Website

Confirmation of Accountant E-mail address

IARD

ADV-E Surprise Examination

Submit a Form ADV-E Surprise Examination Report or Statement of Termination

The Form ADV-E Surprise Examination Filing Site opens:

1. Click on the Form ADV-E Surprise Examination Filing Site link contained in the second email.

Note: The link provided to the ADV-E Surprise Examination Filing Site is unique to the firm that

initiated the Form ADV-E filing. Accountants performing surprise examinations for multiple firms

must use a separate link for each firm.

ADV-E Surprise Examination

Submit a Form ADV-E Surprise Examination Report or Statement of Termination (Continued)

2. Enter the investment adviser’s CRD Number. The CRD Number may be found in the first email

sent to the accountant, or can be searched for on www.adviserinfo.sec.gov.

Note: The CRD Number entered in this field must correspond to the firm that initiated the

Form ADV-E filing. The system will display an error message if the CRD Number does not match.

4. If the Submit surprise examination report radio button is selected, complete the following

additional fields :

a. Enter the Date chosen by the accountant for the surprise examination.

b. Enter the Date the surprise examination was completed by the independent public

accountant .

c. Select the appropriate Yes or No radio button for whether the report contains an

unqualified opinion.

d. Upload PDF file (refer to page 5)

3. Select the type of file to upload (i.e. surprise examination report or statement of termination).

ADV-E Surprise Examination

Submit a Form ADV-E Surprise Examination Report or Statement of Termination (Continued)

5. If the Submit a statement of resignation, dismissal or other termination radio button is se-

lected, complete the following additional fields :

a. Enter the Date of Termination as the date when the resignation, dismissal, other termina-

tion of the engagement, or removal from consideration for reappointment occurred.

b. Enter the Accounting Firm Name.

c. Enter Accountant Contact Information.

d. Select the Reason for Termination from the drop down list.

e. Select the appropriate Yes or No radio button regarding problems relating to the examina-

tion scope or procedure. If the Yes radio button is a selected, a termination statement

must be uploaded.

f. Upload PDF file (refer to page 5)

ADV-E Surprise Examination

Submit a Form ADV-E Surprise Examination Report or Statement of Termination (Continued)

7. Select the PDF report to be uploaded.

8. Click the Open button.

6. Click the Browse button to attach the surprise examination report or statement of termination.

ADV-E Surprise Examination

Submit a Form ADV-E Surprise Examination Report or Statement of Termination (Continued)

9. Click the Submit button to send the surprise examination report or statement of termination to

the SEC.

After the surprise examination report has been submitted:

 You may select the Print button to print a copy of this page or the Close Window button to

close the browser window.

 The Form ADV-E filing and the surprise examination report or statement filed by the ac-

countant will be made available to the public on www.adviserinfo.sec.gov.

 Once a surprise examination report has been submitted for specific adviser, all links provid-

ed in the emails regarding that adviser will be disabled and the accountant will no longer

have access to upload reports for that adviser. If another report needs to be uploaded for

the same adviser, a new ADV-E filing must be initiated through the IARD website.

Note: In order for the upload to be successful, the file must meet certain requirements. See

page 7 for more information, including tips for failed uploads.

ADV-E Surprise Examination

Submit a Form ADV-E Surprise Examination Report or Statement of Termination (Continued)

PDF Document Upload Errors

An error message will display if the uploaded document does not meet all of the following criteria:

 Be in PDF format

 Be text-searchable

 Contain at least 50 words

Additionally, files that are locked or password protected will also inhibit the system’s ability to

search for text. All security on the PDF file must be removed in order to upload the PDF file.

Files that are scanned to PDF format may not contain searchable text, as scanners generally

capture an image of a document. To ensure that the file is text-searchable, the scanner must have

the Optical Character Recognition (OCR) turned on.

If a user has PDF editing software (more than a simple PDF reader), existing PDF documents can

be made text searchable by enabling OCR within the document. Here are the steps:

1. Open the PDF document.

2. Select “Tools” from the main menu.

3. In the Tools menu, click “Recognize Text” and “In This File”.

4. In the Recognize Text window, click “OK”

The text recognition process will proceed. Please note that for a very long document, the process

may take several minutes to complete. When all the pages are processed, search for a common

word in the document to verify that the document now is text-searchable and then click Save.

For additional document upload assistance, please call the IARD Hotline, 240-386-4848.