Books & Records

Rule 204-2 — the Books and Records Rule — defines the paper trail a registered investment adviser must keep: financial records, trade records, communications relating to advice, advertising, and the documentation behind the compliance program itself. In an examination, the records rule is where theory meets practice — if it wasn't retained, it's hard to prove it happened.

The articles in this topic cover what must be kept and for how long, how electronic recordkeeping requirements apply, and how firms handle the hardest modern problem in this area: capturing email, texts, and off-channel communications.