Advisor Reviews, Google Business Profile and the Adoption Rule

A review someone else writes about an advisor on an independent site is generally not the advisor's advertisement, but what the advisor does with it can make it one. Delete only the bad ones, feature the good ones, like or share them, or pay clients to write them, and the regulators treat the praise as the firm's own communication, with every condition that carries. That is why reviews, the weakest signal on most advisor sites, need a written policy before they need a campaign.

Nothing here says an advisor may use testimonials freely. For SEC-registered advisers the Marketing Rule allows testimonials and endorsements only with its disclosure, oversight and disqualification conditions, summarized on the AI visibility for financial advisors hub, and state-registered advisers and FINRA members follow different rules.

Adoption and entanglement, in the SEC's words

The adopting release, IA-5653, looks at the affirmative steps an adviser takes on its own site and on third-party sites. "If an adviser substantively modifies the presentation of comments posted by others by deleting or suppressing negative comments or prioritizing the display of positive comments, then we would attribute the comments to the adviser." A footnote adds: "an adviser could not have a policy to remove only negative comments about the adviser." Editing out profane or unlawful content is treated differently.

The same release notes that under the earlier rule the SEC had told advisers to consider "the existing prohibition of testimonials" before linking to third-party sites. That history explains why so many firms still have no reviews at all.

FINRA's version: liking is adopting

For broker-dealers and their representatives, Regulatory Notice 17-18 is direct: "By liking or sharing the favorable comments, the representative has adopted them and they are subject to the communications rules." It also says a firm has not adopted a linked site's content where the link is "ongoing", meaning continuously available, available whether or not the site says something favorable, and still usable when the third party changes the content. Under Rule 2210(d)(6), a testimonial must disclose that it may not be representative, that it is no guarantee of future performance or success, and, if more than $100 in value was paid, that it is a paid testimonial.

What examiners found in 2025

The SEC's December 16, 2025 risk alert describes advisers who pulled current client testimonials from third-party websites onto their own sites without clearly and prominently disclosing that the reviewers were clients, and advisers who gave clients gift cards to write reviews on third-party websites. It also found required disclosures placed behind hyperlinks or in smaller or lighter type, which the release says does not meet the clear and prominent standard.

Google Business Profile in this light

A Google Business Profile collects reviews on Google's platform, not the advisor's. Google's profile guidelines name financial planners as individual practitioners who may have their own profile. The regulatory questions arise from what the firm does around it: asking for reviews, responding, embedding them on the website, or reporting only the negative ones.

A sequence that keeps you inside the lines

Write the policy first, with compliance: which platforms, who may respond, what may be removed and on what neutral grounds, and whether reviews are ever shown on the firm's own site.
Never remove selectively. A rule that applies only to unfavorable reviews is the exact policy the release rules out.
Do not compensate reviewers without treating it as the testimonial it becomes, including the disclosures.
Link, do not import. An ongoing link to an independent profile is treated differently from copying its best reviews onto your pages.
Tell representatives not to like or share praise on social platforms unless the firm has approved it as a communication.

Whether reviews change what an assistant recommends is not something we have measured, and the hub's limits section says so.

Not legal, compliance or investment advice. This describes how AI systems read an advisory practice in public; which rules bind you depends on how you are registered, and your compliance department decides what you publish.

Questions

Can a financial advisor delete negative Google reviews?

The SEC's Marketing Rule adopting release says that if an adviser substantively modifies third-party comments by deleting or suppressing negative ones or prioritizing positive ones, the SEC would attribute the comments to the adviser, and that an adviser could not have a policy to remove only negative comments. It also says merely editing profane or unlawful content would not have that effect. Platform policies on reporting reviews are a separate matter.

Can an advisor share a client's positive review on LinkedIn?

For broker-dealer representatives, FINRA Regulatory Notice 17-18 says that by liking or sharing favorable comments, the representative has adopted them and they are subject to the communications rules. For SEC-registered advisers, the Marketing Rule's testimonial conditions can apply. Either way it needs compliance review first.

Reviews, Google Business Profile and the adoption rule: what an advisor may do with third-party praise