Rule 206(4)-1(a)(7)

General prohibition: otherwise materially misleading advertisements

materially-misleadingcatchallgeneral-prohibition

Verbatim from the rule

An advertisement may not include or contain any information that is otherwise materially misleading.

What violations look like

Pitch deck

A line chart with the y-axis truncated to start at 90 instead of 0, making a 5% gain look like a 50% one.

Why it's flagged: Visual deception is materially misleading even when the underlying numbers are accurate. The (a)(7) catch-all reaches presentation choices that mislead a reasonable reader regardless of what the labels say.

Compliant rewrite

Use a y-axis baseline of 0, or label the axis as "indexed to 100" with the actual scale visible.

Website

Our small-cap growth strategy returned 22% last year vs the S&P 500’s 18%.

Why it's flagged: A small-cap growth strategy doesn’t belong against the S&P 500 (large-cap, blended). The benchmark mismatch makes the outperformance look like skill when much of it is just style + cap-size beta.

Compliant rewrite

Compare to a benchmark that mirrors the strategy’s risk profile, e.g., the Russell 2000 Growth Index for a small-cap growth strategy.

Run Rule 206(4)-1(a)(7) on your own copy.

Paste any draft — LinkedIn post, newsletter, website copy — and Safe to Publish flags the Rule 206(4)-1(a)(7) issues with citations to the rule and a suggested rewrite.

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This page is for educational purposes and is not legal advice. Safe to Publish is not a law firm. Compliance decisions remain the responsibility of the registered investment adviser. See Terms.