The takeaway in 30 seconds: On May 4, 2026, NASAA approved amendments to four model rules that bring state investment adviser advertising standards into closer alignment with the SEC Marketing Rule, opening the door to testimonials, endorsements, and certain performance advertising that most states have historically prohibited. Important caveat: these are model rules, not law. Nothing changes in your state until your state adopts them. But the direction is now set, and the smart move isn’t to wait for your state’s adoption date. It’s to build the marketing controls the new framework requires before you start using the freedoms it grants, because the freedoms come with substantiation, disclosure, and recordkeeping obligations that catch unprepared firms.
For state-registered RIAs, advertising has long operated under a different and generally stricter regime than the one governing their SEC-registered peers. When the SEC modernized its Marketing Rule, permitting testimonials, endorsements, and specific performance advertising under defined guardrails, state-registered advisers largely watched from the outside. Their state rules hadn’t changed, and in many states, the practices the SEC now allowed remained off-limits.
NASAA’s May 4 action begins to close that gap. By approving amendments to four model rules covering unethical business practices, prohibited conduct, and two recordkeeping provisions, NASAA has established a state-level framework that mirrors the SEC’s approach. As states adopt it, the long-standing patchwork between federal and state advertising standards should start to narrow.
Here’s the part that matters for how you respond: this is a signal, not a switch. And the right way to read a signal is to prepare for what it points toward before it arrives.
What NASAA Actually Did — and What It Didn’t
NASAA is a coordinating body for state securities regulators, not a regulator itself. It publishes model rules; individual states decide whether and when to adopt them. That distinction is the single most important thing to understand about this announcement.
What happened: NASAA’s membership voted to adopt amendments to four model rules that align state advertising standards with the SEC Marketing Rule, permitting testimonials, endorsements, and certain performance-related advertising under guardrails similar to the federal ones.
What did not happen: Your state’s rules did not change on May 4. The model amendments don’t automatically alter any individual state’s regulations. Each state has to adopt its own implementing changes before the new framework takes effect locally, and the timeline for that will vary from state to state, with some moving quickly and others taking considerable time or modifying the model before adopting it.
The practical consequence of that distinction is that your advertising compliance in any given state has to match what that state has actually adopted, not what NASAA approved at the model level. Acting on the new freedoms before your state has adopted them isn’t early compliance. It’s a violation of the rules still in effect.
Why “Wait and See” Is the Wrong Response
The intuitive reaction to a model rule that hasn’t been adopted yet is to wait, monitor your state, and act when it adopts. That’s half right. You do need to wait to use the new freedoms until your state grants them. But waiting to prepare is a mistake, for two reasons.
First, the freedoms come bundled with obligations. The reason state rules were stricter is that testimonials, endorsements, and performance advertising carry real investor-protection risks, and the SEC’s framework manages those risks with specific conditions: substantiation requirements, disclosure mandates, and recordkeeping obligations. When your state adopts the NASAA model, it won’t just hand you the ability to use testimonials. It will hand you the ability to use testimonials provided you meet the conditions. A firm that rushes to use the new freedoms without the controls in place has simply traded one compliance problem for another.
Second, marketing is already an active enforcement priority at both levels. Marketing compliance is one of the most scrutinized areas in RIA examinations, federal and state alike. As state-registered advisers gain access to advertising practices that generate more examiner attention, the firms that adopt those practices without the supporting controls become the firms that generate findings. The convergence toward the SEC standard means state examiners will increasingly evaluate against SEC-like expectations which are more demanding on documentation than the flat prohibitions many state rules currently impose.
The firms that come through this transition cleanly won’t be the ones that moved fastest to use testimonials. They’ll be the ones whose marketing controls were built before they started using the freedoms so that the day their state adopts the new framework, they’re ready to use it correctly rather than scrambling to catch up to their own marketing.
The Controls the New Framework Requires
Whether your state adopts the NASAA model next quarter or next year, the controls the framework requires are knowable now, because they mirror the SEC Marketing Rule. If you build toward these, you’re ready regardless of your state’s timeline.
- Substantiation. Any factual claim in an advertisement about performance, about the firm’s approach, about results has to be substantiated, with the supporting evidence retained. Under the new framework, “we can back this up if asked” isn’t enough; the backup has to exist in a retained form before the claim goes out.
- Testimonial and endorsement disclosures. If your state adopts the framework and you use testimonials or endorsements, each one requires specific disclosures: whether the person is a client, whether they were compensated, and whether any material conflicts of interest exist. Missing or incomplete disclosures are among the most common Marketing Rule findings at the federal level.
- Performance advertising standards. Presenting performance triggers detailed requirements net-of-fee presentation alongside gross, appropriate time periods, and disclosures that prevent the presentation from being misleading. This is the most technically demanding area of the framework and the one where unprepared firms most often stumble.
- A documented review and approval process. Every piece of advertising needs to go through a review that’s documented who reviewed it, what they evaluated, when it was approved, tied to the specific piece of content. A review that happens informally, without a retained record, doesn’t satisfy the recordkeeping obligation even if the review itself was thorough.
- Recordkeeping across every channel. The two recordkeeping model rules NASAA amended are a signal that record retention is central to the new framework. Advertising records including the substantiation and the review trail need to be retained and retrievable across websites, pitch books, social media, referral arrangements, client reviews, and third-party ratings.
None of these are exotic. They’re the standard architecture of Marketing Rule compliance, which SEC-registered firms have been building since 2020. For state-registered firms, the NASAA action is advance notice that the same architecture is coming to your jurisdiction and a chance to build it before it’s required rather than after.
The Multi-State Complication
For compliance consultants and for firms with personnel or affiliates operating across state lines, the transition period introduces a specific complication worth naming: for a stretch of time, different states will be in different places.
One state adopts the NASAA model early. A neighboring state hasn’t adopted it at all. A third adopts a modified version. During that window, a firm operating across those jurisdictions can’t apply a single advertising policy because a testimonial that’s permissible in the adopting state may still be prohibited in the one that hasn’t moved. The compliance approach in each state has to match what that state has actually adopted.
This is the part that catches multi-state operations off guard. The convergence NASAA is driving toward is a good thing a narrower patchwork is easier to manage than a wide one. But the transition toward convergence is temporarily messier than either the old world or the new one, because the patchwork is actively shifting. A firm that treats “NASAA adopted the model” as “the rules are now consistent” will get the multi-state picture wrong.
The Underlying Point
NASAA’s action doesn’t change your obligations today. What it does is tell you where state advertising regulation is heading toward the SEC Marketing Rule standard with enough lead time to prepare properly.
That lead time is the opportunity. The freedoms the new framework offers are genuinely useful; testimonials and endorsements are effective marketing tools that state-registered advisers have been denied. But they arrive attached to a control framework, and the firms that benefit from the freedoms without generating findings are the ones that build the controls first. The announcement is a prompt to start building now, while it’s preparation rather than remediation.
State advertising rules are converging on the federal standard. The only real question is whether your marketing controls will be ready when your state gets there or whether you’ll be building them under the pressure of already having started to use freedoms you weren’t yet equipped to use safely.
What to Do With This
You can’t act on the new freedoms until your state adopts the model. But you can and should do three things now, regardless of your state’s timeline.
- Find out where your state actually stands. Confirm whether your state has adopted, is considering, or hasn’t addressed the NASAA model amendments. If you operate in multiple states, map the status of each. This is the fact that governs what you can actually do, and it’s the first thing to establish.
- Build the Marketing Rule control architecture now. Substantiation files, testimonial and endorsement disclosure templates, performance advertising standards, a documented review-and-approval process, and advertising recordkeeping across every channel. Build it to the SEC standard, because that’s what your state is converging toward. When adoption comes, you’ll be ready to use the new freedoms correctly on day one.
- Don’t get ahead of your state. Until your state adopts the framework, the current rules still bind you. The preparation is building the controls not using the testimonials, endorsements, or performance advertising the new framework will eventually permit. Preparing early is smart. Acting early is a violation.
If your marketing controls are already built to the SEC Marketing Rule standard, this announcement is confirmation you’re positioned well for wherever your state lands. If they aren’t, you’ve been given something rare in compliance: advance notice, with time to prepare before the requirement arrives. That’s a window worth using.
