If your hedge fund doesn’t have a compliance officer, it may want to go out and get one quick. According to Walter Zebrowski, chairman of the board of Regulatory Compliance Association, the Securities and Exchange Commission almost always finds something deficient, compliance-wise. “Only 4.5% of the time does the SEC find nothing,” Zebrowski told a recent MARHedge conference. He pointed out that a compliance officer serves as a “quarterback” who can respond quickly to SEC questions, and that the SEC “takes a skeptical view” if chief compliance officer is merely “a tag on to an overworked person,” usually the CFO. If the fund doesn’t have someone who regularly looks at compliance issues, Ted Johann of Botti Brown Asset Management told the conferees, “it could be a problem when the SEC comes around.” Dana Pawlicki of Citigroup Alternatives, who sat on the same panel, said a little TLC can go a long way. “One of the first things SEC examiners have said they notice is the attitude of the hedge fund,” recalled Pawlicki. “Do they give [the SEC] an adequate place to work or do they stick them in a corner somewhere?”