How FSG, ICA, and Greenboard Built a Compliance Program That Scales

The Partnership Behind the Platform

Integrated Compliance Advisors (ICA), founded by Stacie Craddock in 2023, is one of Greenboard's largest consulting partners. Since October 2024, ICA has worked alongside Greenboard across 100+ clients to deliver integrated compliance powered by AI. ICA brings the regulatory expertise. Greenboard brings the technology. 

FSG went live on Greenboard in April 2025 with ICA consultant Lindsay Rider leading the rollout. They were all in before the ink was dry. Their CCO told the CEO he'd pay for the tool himself after seeing what a single AI-powered compliance platform could do for the team's workload. The difference since has been night and day.

Since launch, FSG has put every module to work: eComms supervision, marketing reviews across video files, tax newsletters, and ads, pre-clearance requests, quarterly and annual attestations, firm compliance action items, and vendor due diligence. Across the board, the combination of Greenboard's AI tooling and ICA's expert guidance has reshaped how FSG approaches compliance.

About FSG

Financial Strategies Group (FSG) traces its roots back to 1988, when Mark Carter set out with a vision for a better future for his family. Since then, the firm has grown to manage approximately $677 million on a discretionary basis across business owners, retirees, families, young professionals, and more.

FSG takes a team-based approach to compliance, distributing responsibilities across Doug Thalhammer (CCO), Jordan Seath (Back Office Leader), and Steve Robinson (Director of Technology and Logistics). That model demands coordination, reliable systems, and expert guidance, which is exactly what ICA and Greenboard provide through bi-weekly consulting calls and hands-on program management.

The Challenge

Before Greenboard, FSG's compliance program ran across a fragmented stack of point solutions. Smarsh handled email archiving. Orion Compliance managed attestations. Other tools filled the gaps. On top of all of it, the team tracked everything against manually maintained scope-and-sequence documents from ICA.

It worked. But it took a lot of extra time and effort. 

Vendor due diligence was the worst offender. Every year, the team spent a full week pulling privacy policies, sifting through vendor websites, and documenting findings by hand. Trade surveillance meant downloading blotters and running random samplings manually, hours of Doug's time every month. And marketing review? Doug was taking documents home at night just to keep up.

"We had some of the most vendors that Lindsay had worked with," Jordan recalled. The tools weren't broken, but the effort to operate them wasn't going to scale with the firm's ambitions.

When ICA introduced Greenboard, there was natural hesitation. New platform, new workflows, AI in a compliance setting. Doug was especially cautious. But the fact that the recommendation came from ICA, not a cold pitch from a vendor he'd never heard of, made all the difference.

The Solution

FSG replaced several systems with Greenboard: one platform for compliance workflows, communications supervision, trade surveillance, marketing review, attestations, and vendor management, with ICA embedded inside it.

‍Vendor Due Diligence A week of manual research became one to two hours. Greenboard's AI reaches out to vendors directly, pulls privacy policies, and flags key data points automatically.

"We would do vendor due diligence for a week," Steve said, "and now a single person can get it done within an hour or two."

Trade Surveillance No more downloading blotters. Greenboard connects directly to custodial feeds and allows users to link personal brokerage accounts through open banking APIs. The platform then compares employee trades against client activity, with ICA reviewing the results and flagging anything that needs attention.

"I would see Doug working on that for hours," Jordan said. "I can get that done fairly quickly now."

eComms and Marketing Review Greenboard's AI scans communications and marketing content against SEC regulations, flags issues in context rather than arbitrarily based on a lexicon system, and suggests alternative language. Instead of combing through every piece of content word by word, Doug can focus his review where it matters most.

"I used to take those home and read them. Now I can get a scope based on what the AI flags, and when it's difficult, get some alternative language put in as suggestions. The efficiency has been immeasurable for me."

Attestations, Pre-Clearance, and Firm Compliance Quarterly attestations, pre-clearance requests, Code of Ethics acknowledgments, and routine tasks all live in Greenboard now.

"To have so many tools consolidated into the platform created nothing but efficiency," Steve said.

Where ICA Makes the Difference

The platform handles the technology. ICA makes sure it’s tailored to the firm’s needs. 

Lindsay uses Greenboard to see where FSG stands at any given moment: what's done, what's open, and where they need help. That visibility turned their bi-weekly calls from checkbox exercises into real strategy conversations.

"Lindsay's not spending time asking 'Is this done?'" Jordan explained. "She can see the scope and sequence of what we're following. It sets up for really efficient conversations."

"A lot of those calls used to be me having Lindsay double-check what we did," Doug added. "Now all that goes away, and we can get into unique circumstances or whatever we might be dealing with."

And when something comes up between calls, the Greenboard team is fast. Steve described getting answers the same day, every time, with options to get directions, collaborate, or have the team just handle it.

The Impact

Onboarding was smooth and straightforward. FSG ran legacy systems in parallel until they were confident everything was capturing correctly, and hit that milestone ahead of schedule.

"I don't want to say that Greenboard and ICA were holding our hands through the process," Steve said, "but they were holding our hands through the process. We never ran into major obstacles. We were never down operationally."

With Steve as an internal champion, ICA's consulting calls keeping things on track, and Greenboard's support team a message away, the team got up and running fast. 

The broader team adapted naturally. Advisors complete attestations and submit marketing materials inside Greenboard without friction. Leadership has real-time visibility instead of chasing paperwork. The distributed compliance model FSG was already running now has a platform and partnership built around it.

"There's not one all-be-all person that handles this beast of a job," Jordan said. "The partnership with Greenboard and ICA heightens the greatness of things that we're doing."

For Doug, who didn't come from a compliance background, the real value is knowing that AI and human expertise are working together.

"It's AI being monitored by people who know where the lines are, and then the personal interaction. It's not an automated robot. Being able to talk with somebody and not just get an automated response makes a huge difference."

Looking Ahead

FSG has plans to grow, and they're counting on ICA and Greenboard to grow with them.

"As we grow as an RIA, we're going to hit thresholds that mean we're under different guidance, different types of scrutiny," Steve noted. "I think this partnership is essential."

The team is already looking to expand the collaboration into new areas: optimizing internal workflows, tapping into best practices from ICA and Greenboard's broader network, and finding efficiencies they haven't unlocked yet. They've seen what the partnership can do, and they want more of it.

Greenboard has significant AI enhancements slated throughout this year, with new automation for administrative workflows and deeper collaboration tools designed to help firms like FSG push the platform even further.

For FSG, compliance went from something that followed them home at night to something that runs in the background while they focus on growing the business. That's what happens when the right technology meets the right people.