Compliance is a foundation, not a filter
Nate Isaacson opened the compliance discussion with a question every CMO has asked him about new technology: Can we use this in a regulated environment? Drawing on 12 years of financial services compliance experience, he explained that the answer has always come down to four requirements for any content or communication leaving the platform: “Can we capture it? Can we archive it? Can we supervise it? And can we discover it?”
Those four principles now anchor Seismic's Compliance Framework, an integrated governance layer designed to operate across the platform's core workflows. Rather than operating as a separate process that slows teams down, the framework embeds compliance directly into how content is created, personalized, shared, and managed.
Mark Peabody emphasized that this year marks a deliberate shift from addressing compliance requirements by feature to establishing a platform-level foundation for governance. The framework is designed to work alongside firms' existing compliance ecosystems, including archive-of-record providers and ad-review solutions, while creating a consistent layer of controls across workflows.
The broader goal is to make compliance an enabler of adoption rather than a barrier to it. As firms introduce more personalization and AI-assisted content creation, Seismic is developing AI-powered pre-checks and review workflows that help compliance teams focus their attention where it matters most. While human reviewers remain in control, AI can support routine screening and lower-risk reviews more efficiently.
Content automation is enhanced by AI
Content automation emerged as another major topic of discussion at this City Tours session, particularly as attendees considered how AI is reshaping the creation and delivery of client-facing content.
“We see this as a really exciting opportunity to let AI handle the more tedious parts of the [content creation] process,” said Bob Murphy, “while governed content frameworks continue to provide the structure, business rules, and controls organizations depend on.”
As generative AI takes on more of the work involved in creating customer-facing materials, firms still need governance, context, and trusted content sources to ensure those experiences remain accurate, consistent, and compliant.
Enabling partners, not just internal teams
Bob Murphy and Jordan Vipond emphasized a key challenge: while content is central to every fund distribution relationship, it rarely reaches the right advisor at the right time. Content gets pushed through email and portals with little visibility, compliance lives in one system while distribution happens in another, and asset managers often have limited insight into what advisors actually use.
The core challenge is not a lack of content, but the disconnect between content creation, compliance review, distribution, and measurement. In many organizations, those activities happen across separate systems, making it difficult to understand how content moves through distribution channels or whether it ultimately influences advisor behavior.
They showcased the Partner Enablement Network (PEN) as a solution to bring those activities together. PEN is a shared content infrastructure that connects fund manufacturers and wealth distributors directly within Seismic. This allows governed content to flow from fund manufacturer to advisor, with insights flowing back. And, because compliance happens inside Seismic before distribution, the asset manager never pushes unapproved content.
During a live demonstration, Vipond showed how content could move from creation and approval through distribution and advisor consumption while maintaining visibility into engagement along the way. That closed-loop view, Vipond suggested, gives firms a clearer understanding of what content is being used, shared, and acted upon across partner networks.
The PEN roadmap includes deeper analytics connecting advisor engagement to business outcomes, addressing a long-standing challenge of asset managers struggling to understand the impact of content across distribution channels.
Digital outreach is shifting toward orchestration
The final discussion focused on a challenge familiar to many financial services leaders: digital outreach is fragmented. Social publishing, email communications, content sourcing, analytics, and compliance reviews frequently live in separate tools, making it difficult to scale engagement while maintaining consistency and oversight.
As client expectations for personalized digital engagement continue to rise, firms are finding it increasingly difficult to manage outreach across multiple channels without introducing compliance risk or operational complexity.
Drawing on his experience in the industry, Nate Isaacson described a vision for bringing those activities together into a more coordinated approach. The goal, he explained, is to help advisors, bankers, and wholesalers engage clients through connected workflows that make approved content easier to find, distribute, measure, and govern.
Compliance and personalization can no longer be treated as competing priorities, according to Isaacson. As firms look to increase digital engagement, the challenge becomes creating experiences that feel relevant and timely while still meeting supervisory requirements. Several product previews—including updates to Seismic Social and bulk email capabilities—were presented as examples of how firms can embed governance directly into the flow of work rather than layering it on afterward.
Digital outreach, Isaacson contended, is evolving from a collection of individual channels into a coordinated engagement strategy. As client expectations continue to rise, firms will increasingly need connected systems that help them manage content, compliance, and measurement together rather than in isolation.
Removing the barriers to scale
Schachter closed the session by emphasizing the goal of removing barriers that prevent financial services firms from maximizing the tools they've invested in.
The four areas outlined — compliance infrastructure, content automation, partner enablement, and digital outreach — address the same underlying challenge: creating more personalized client experiences without adding risk or complexity. Each strategy helps teams strengthen client relationships, improve operational efficiency, and expand the reach and impact of every interaction.
As client expectations evolve, firms need connected systems that bring together content, compliance, personalization, and measurement.
For more takeaways from Seismic City Tours, check out this blog.
