She serves as the Chief Compliance Officer and a managing equity partner of XML Securities, an introducing retail broker-dealer, and its affiliated SEC-registered investment adviser, XML Financial Group.
Since 2000, Ms. Szaro has embraced a variety of roles to drive the growth of her firm, including marketing, sales/trading, human resources, operations, corporate administration, and compliance. Through the past two decades, she helped lead the expansion from six employees to over 50, navigating through strategic mergers, Continuing Membership Applications, onboarding new teams, and numerous SEC and FINRA regulatory examinations.
Ms. Szaro actively contributes to the firm’s Executive, Leadership, and Operations Committees. She chairs XML’s forward-thinking Serve Our Seniors Committee, which addresses the complex needs of senior investors. She holds Series 7, 24, 28, 53, 63, 65, and 99 licenses and pursued advanced training through FINRA’s Certified Regulatory and Compliance Professional (CRCP) Program at Wharton. Ms. Szaro earned her Bachelor of Science from the University of Rhode Island.
In 2019, Ms. Szaro joined FINRA’s Small Firm Advisory Committee (SFAC), where she has been a proactive contributor, serving as Chair in 2020 and enhancing her advocacy for the myriad of small firm business models and their clients.
Notably, in 2020, Ms. Szaro spearheaded a major initiative to address outdated FINRA rules. For months she engaged with hundreds of small firms to gather feedback and develop actionable recommendations, which she presented to FINRA’s Executive Staff. Many of these recommendations have since been addressed.
Additional Contributions to the Small Firm Community
- Small Firm Advisory Committee (2019 – 2023, 2020 Chair)
- As SFAC Chair, advocated for and obtained COVID19-related exemptive relief for small firms (and others) relating to rule filings, regulatory report filing deadlines, and more.
- Contributed leadership and revised language for FINRA Rule 1240 Continuing Education.
- New help for firms! Recently she requested and worked with FINRA’s Gateway Tech members to enable firms to have a new and efficient template report to view all U4 “Located At” and “Supervised From” data in an aggregated format.
- Represented small firms with state and federal regulators: Rule 3110 Supplementary Materials: .19 Residential Supervisory Location (RSL) and .18 Remote Inspections Pilot Program
- SEC Office of the Investor Advocate Nov. 21, 2023
- SEC Office of Commissioner Jaime Lizárraga Oct. 20, 2023
- SIFMA State Regulation & Legislation Committee Meeting Dec. 2021
- Authored comment letters, including many other small firms:
- Member of SIFMA’s Remote Work Supervision Task Force, 2023
- FINRA Senior Investors Roundtable (2020 – present)
- Frequent speaker at industry conferences, providing practical takeaways for small firms.
- PEER-2-PEER LIBRARY contributions: Contributed Branch Inspection Report Templates and an aggregated list of Inspection Resources. These were a result of another outreach to small firms to obtain aggregated best practices.
- Co-authored CAT/CAIS “How To” instructions for small firms and worked behind the scenes with FINRA to improve their communications to small firms.
