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CASE STUDY 01

Code of Ethics Program Transformation

Sands Capital Management | 2023–2025

Modernizing a firm-wide Code of Ethics program to strengthen regulatory reporting, recordkeeping, personal trading oversight and compliance operations for more than 200 employees.

THE CHALLENGE

A critical compliance program had become difficult to maintain accurately and efficiently.

The Code of Ethics program required significant remediation to support accurate regulatory reporting and recordkeeping. The compliance management system was disorganized, employee disclosures required extensive review, and manual processes around brokerage statements and personal trading verification created additional operational complexity.

THE investigation

Understanding the system before redesigning it.

The work began with a comprehensive assessment of how the Code of Ethics program operated across policy, technology, data and day-to-day compliance workflows.

01

Policy & Regulation
  • Policies & procedures

  • Regulatory reporting requirements

  • Historical records

the goal

Identify where policy requirements, system configuration and day-to-day employee activity were falling out of alignment.

02

Systems & Data
  • Compliance system configuration

  • Account & transaction data feeds

  • Brokerage statements

03

Employee Activity
  • Employee disclosures

  • Personal trading workflows

  • Manual review processes

THE STRATEGY

Move from fragmented remediation to a structured, sustainable compliance program.

A comprehensive Cleanup Project Plan was developed to systematically address account verification, brokerage statements, private investments, personal trading waivers and compliance-system configuration.

01 | REMEDIATE
02 | STRENGTHEN
03 | OPTIMIZE

Validate accounts, disclosures, statements and historical records.

Review personal trading rules, private investments and waiver processes.

Improve system organization, account data feeds and regulatory recordkeeping.

EXECUTION

Turning the strategy into action.

01

Conducted direct employee outreach to verify active brokerage accounts, statements, transactions and holdings.

02

Performed a comprehensive review of private investment disclosures.

03

Reviewed and validated personal trading waivers.

04

Evaluated the compliance management system and organization of personal trading rules.

05

Improved the accuracy and reliability of account data feeds and compliance records.

The Impact

A stronger foundation for an accurate, scalable and audit-ready Code of Ethics program.

  • Improved organization of personal trading rules

  • More accurate account data feeds

  • More reliable employee disclosures

  • Stronger regulatory record-keeping

  • Reduced dependence on fragmented manual review

  • Greater confidence in the integrity of Code of Ethics data

200+

Employees supported

LEADERSHIP TAKEAWAY

“Strong compliance programs are not built around individual checks. They are built around systems that make accurate oversight repeatable.”

This work required looking beyond individual compliance issues to understand how policy, technology, data and employee behavior interacted across the broader Code of Ethics program.

Sands Capital Management

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