Compliance training and evidence for small investment managers
CoreCompliance is a compliance training subscription for small UK investment managers. It gives directors and compliance officers FCA-aligned training across the topics relevant to regulated investment firms, plus an audit trail showing who completed what, when, and with what result. Produce audit-ready evidence in one click. Set up in an afternoon.
Running a regulated firm with no compliance team means one missing piece of evidence is all it takes.
What compliance training does a small investment firm need?
A small UK investment firm typically needs training covering areas such as Market Abuse, SM&CR, Consumer Duty, AML, conflicts of interest, financial promotions and data protection. The exact requirements depend on the firm's activities, permissions and responsibilities.
That training also needs to be evidenced. For a small firm without a dedicated compliance team, the challenge is keeping the training running and maintaining a clear audit trail without creating another administrative job.
Most small investment managers sit somewhere between knowing they need to do this properly and not having anyone whose full-time job is compliance. A director or compliance officer may be responsible for making sure training happens, while also managing the rest of the business.
The specific pressure points for investment firms under 50 staff include:
- Market abuse, insider dealing and personal account dealing obligations
- SM&CR and non-financial misconduct
- Consumer Duty and the need to evidence how relevant requirements are embedded
- Conflicts of interest and inducements
- AML and financial crime
- Producing a clear audit trail when the FCA or another reviewer asks for evidence
CoreCompliance is a compliance training subscription for small regulated firms. It combines FCA regulatory depth with self-serve training, an audit trail and downloadable evidence, without the implementation overhead of an enterprise platform. For the underlying regulatory detail behind any of this, see the Skillcast regulatory guides.
What FCA compliance training should an investment firm cover?
Topics a small investment firm may need to evidence
- Market abuse, insider dealing and personal account dealing
- SM&CR and non-financial misconduct
- Consumer Duty
- Conflicts of interest and inducements
- Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and financial crime
- Anti-bribery and corruption
- MiFID II conduct obligations
- Client assets (CASS) where the firm holds or controls client money
- Data protection and UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
- Financial promotions
- Cyber security awareness
- Operational resilience
What your CoreCompliance subscription includes
- All relevant topics in one subscription, with no add-on modules
- Interactive training that updates automatically when a rule changes
- Unlimited admin users, so more than one person can manage training
- An audit trail showing staff, training, completion dates and results
- Audit-ready evidence you can download when required
- Aida, the AI compliance assistant, included on every plan
How does compliance training work for a small investment firm?
No setup. No content creation. No admin burden.
Sign up, start your training and view the audit trail from your first course. There is no implementation phase and no IT involvement required. Most firms can get started the same afternoon.
- 1 Sign up for your 30-day free trial, no card required
- 2 Start up to five courses and see the interactive format for yourself
- 3 Check the completion records and audit trail generated during the trial
Training and the audit trail, in one subscription
Train the whole team without building a separate programme for every role
CoreCompliance gives portfolio managers, analysts, dealers, operations, compliance and directors access to the same interactive training library. You can manage the training centrally without creating a separate programme for every new hire.
Produce the audit trail when the FCA asks
When the FCA asks you to evidence your training, you need the records to hand. CoreCompliance keeps an audit trail of staff, courses, completion dates and results, with downloadable evidence you can produce when required.
Take training administration off your personal list
Under SM&CR, compliance responsibilities can sit with individuals as part of their broader roles. CoreCompliance keeps the training records up to date and automated chasers follow up with staff who have not completed their training. The audit trail is maintained as the programme runs.
Aida answers regulatory questions for firms without a dedicated compliance team
Every CoreCompliance subscription includes Aida, an AI compliance assistant grounded in Skillcast's curated regulatory content. When a dealer has a question about personal account dealing, an analyst is unsure whether information is inside information, or a director wants to check current Consumer Duty guidance, they can ask Aida. It cites its sources, links back to the FCA Handbook and refuses questions outside its scope.
For a small investment firm, Aida provides on-demand assistance with regulatory questions without replacing formal compliance advice.
Pricing for small investment firms
CoreCompliance starts from £349 a year, with volume pricing as your firm grows. The annual subscription includes training, the audit trail, reporting and Aida, with no separate implementation fee.
What CoreCompliance is not
- It is not a compliance consultancy. CoreCompliance is a compliance training and evidence platform for small regulated firms. If you need someone to write a Consumer Duty implementation plan from scratch or represent you in a Section 166 review, you need a consultant.
- It is not a bespoke content builder. If you need custom courses for a proprietary strategy or process, CoreCompliance is the wrong fit and Skillcast Portal is designed for that.
- It is not designed for sophisticated enterprise requirements. CoreCompliance is deliberately simple. If your firm needs custom branding, deeper reporting, HR system integrations or dedicated account management, particularly as your organisation grows beyond the small-firm use case, Skillcast Portal is designed for those requirements.
Compliance training questions, answered
What does the free trial actually let me do?
The trial lets you start and complete up to five courses yourself, then see the completion records and audit trail the platform keeps. It does not include inviting your team or assigning training. That happens once you subscribe.
How do small investment firms evidence compliance training?
CoreCompliance keeps an audit trail showing who completed each course, when they completed it and the relevant result. You can download the records as audit-ready evidence when the FCA or another reviewer asks for them.
Do I need CoreCompliance if I already have a compliance consultant?
The two can be complementary. A consultant can provide strategic advice and handle deeper regulatory work. CoreCompliance keeps day-to-day training running and maintains the audit trail and evidence the firm may need to produce.
How does the evidence work if we receive an FCA review?
CoreCompliance provides downloadable records showing staff training activity, including courses completed, completion dates and relevant results. You can use those records as evidence of your training programme.
Is Aida trained on our data?
No. Conversations with Aida are not used to train the model. Aida is grounded in Skillcast's curated regulatory content library and cites its sources.
What about the non-financial misconduct rules that came into force in September 2026?
The non-financial misconduct rules commenced on 1 September 2026 and now apply to every SM&CR firm regardless of size. CoreCompliance includes non-financial misconduct training and evidence as part of your subscription. See the full non-financial misconduct hub for what small firms need to have in place now.
Can we cancel?
Cancelling stops renewal rather than ending the current paid term. Subscriptions are annual, with no monthly option, and there is no refund for the remaining paid period.