Compliance FAQs
Clear guidance for Advisors on eligibility, confidentiality, and consulting obligations.
These FAQs address common compliance questions from Advisors, including employment considerations, confidentiality requirements, and how to handle sensitive information during consultations. They are intended to provide general guidance and do not replace your obligation to review Guidepoint’s Terms & Conditions.
Employment & Advisor eligibility.
These questions address whether and under what circumstances Advisors are permitted to consult, based on employment obligations and potential conflicts.
You should confer with your employer to confirm that you are permitted to consult through Guidepoint. You are solely responsible for determining whether you are permitted to consult, given your employment circumstances.
You should decline the invitation, notify Guidepoint of the reason, and update your biographical information if necessary to ensure our records are accurate and up to date. Guidepoint’s Terms & Conditions categorically prohibit Advisors from consulting about their employers.
No. You may continue consulting with your existing Clients and engage new Clients freely. Guidepoint simply requires that you continue to work through us with any Client to whom we first introduced you.
Yes. We only require that you continue to work through us with any Client to whom we first introduced you.
Client Confidentiality & Confidential Information
These questions explain how Advisors should handle confidential information, material non-public information, and client-related details during and after consultations.
No. Your consultations with Guidepoint Clients—and any information you receive in connection with a consultation or an invitation to consult—are strictly confidential. You may not disclose a Client’s identity, the subjects discussed, or any information or materials provided to you by a Client. Likewise, you should not share information concerning any surveys that Guidepoint provides you.
You should explain that you cannot answer the question because it would cause you to reveal confidential information. If you are uncomfortable continuing with the consultation, you may end it and invoice Guidepoint for the consultation. If you feel that a Client was knowingly seeking to solicit material non-public or confidential information from you, you should notify Guidepoint Compliance ([email protected]).
“Material non-public information” is the legal term for information that can give rise to insider trading liability in the US.
Information is “material” if “there is a substantial likelihood that a reasonable investor would consider it important” in deciding whether to buy, sell, or hold a security (e.g., a stock or bond). To meet the threshold for materiality, there must exist a “substantial likelihood” that a fact “would have been viewed by the reasonable investor as having significantly altered the ‘total mix’ of information made available.” Information may be deemed material even if it relates to speculative or contingent events.
Information is regarded as “non-public” unless and until it has been broadly disseminated or made widely available to the general public. Means of dissemination could include public filings, coverage by major news organizations, posting on widely-visited websites, publication in research reports, and circulation in proxy materials. Even if a public announcement has been made about a particular matter, unpublicized aspects of the matter may remain “non-public” for purposes of the securities laws.
To be safe, you may not disclose any information that is confidential to any company. It is difficult to determine the materiality of particular facts in isolation, and you should not attempt to do so. Instead, you should decline any project or inquiry that would involve disclosure of any confidential information.
Prior engagements, customers, & third parties.
These questions cover whether and how Advisors may discuss past consulting work, clinical trials, customers, suppliers, or other third-party relationships.
You should carefully review your continuing obligations to any companies for which you have consulted or clinical trials upon which you have worked. Companies and clinical trials often include confidentiality restrictions in their consulting agreements that prohibit consultants from disclosing or discussing certain information for a period after the termination of the relationship.
Under no circumstances should you discuss non-public clinical trial data or patient experience information. Likewise, if you are a member of a Data Safety Monitoring Board or Clinical Trial Steering Committee, you must decline any consultation concerning current clinical trials.
If you are not confident that you are permitted to undertake a particular consultation, you should decline.
It depends on the circumstances. As a general matter, you may speak about a company that is a customer or supplier of your employer, provided that you and your company have no confidentiality agreement with that customer or supplier and you do not disclose any information given to your company in confidence. To be safe, if you are unsure whether information is confidential or otherwise restricted, you may not disclose it.
Terms, agreements, & legal commitments.
These questions clarify the legal effect of Guidepoint’s Terms & Conditions and the obligations Advisors accept when agreeing to them.
Yes, you are legally bound. Clicking “I Accept” is the legal equivalent of signing a paper contract agreeing to Guidepoint’s Terms & Conditions, and you will be expected to abide by them fully.
The most current version of Guidepoint’s Terms & Conditions is always available on the Guidepoint website. Advisors are responsible for reviewing and complying with the version in effect at the time of their participation.
For specific questions, contact our compliance professionals.
Our team can help clarify requirements, documentation, or project-specific considerations.
