— advisor
J. Okafor · IAR
Off-channel archiving · 17 CFR §275.204-2(a)(7)
iMessage archiving,
iMessage archiving,
built for RIAs.
Native iMessage capture, plus WhatsApp, SMS, and the other off-channel text messages your advisors actually use. One system for text message archiving, retained against SEC Rule 204-2 and searchable at exam time.
A text message is a record when its content is advisory business, not because of the app it traveled on. Rule 204-2(a)(7) turns on what the message says. See our SEC and FINRA archiving requirements guide for the rule text, and verify every citation against the primary source.
9:41● ● ●
Thursday · 10:22 AM
Hey, saw the market drop this morning. Should I move the whole account to cash?
Let's not react to one day. Your plan already holds two years of spending in short-term bonds, so nothing forces a sale here.
Want to hop on a call this afternoon to walk through it?
Yes, that helps. 3pm works. Thank you.
⬢ sha-256 · 7c14·b0e9·2af5
4 messages · iMessage thread
J. Okafor (IAR) ↔ M. Alvarez · advice on a market-timing question, retained as a Rule 204-2 record.
policy · review
Surfaced to CCO for sign-off
Why off-channel is on every CCO's list
The message your advisor sent from their personal iPhone still counts.
The SEC's recordkeeping initiative has charged more than 100 firms and collected more than $2 billion in penalties since December 2021, sweeping in investment advisers alongside broker-dealers. The violation is not what any one message said. It is that a covered business communication existed on a channel the firm never captured and could not produce. iMessage is the channel most firms miss, because advisors text clients from the phone in their pocket. For the full requirements picture, read our archiving requirements guide.
How native iMessage capture works
Capture at the source, not through a carrier.
iMessage never touches a carrier's SMS network, so carrier-based archiving cannot see it. RegFin Sync captures covered client conversations at the source, on the advisor's own devices, and can often backfill conversations that predate rollout.
— 01 · Connect
Connect RegFin Sync
The advisor connects RegFin Sync once, guided by our onboarding team. Nothing is installed on the advisor's iPhone, no management profile is required, and the advisor keeps their own number. Where message history is available, it can be backfilled, so the archive does not have to start from zero.
— 02 · Filter
Client contacts only
During setup, the advisor's contacts are matched against your firm's clients and prospects. Only conversations with those contacts stream into the archive. Threads with family, friends, and vendors are left alone, which is what makes a personal device viable.
— 03 · Seal
Hashed and sealed
Each captured message is hashed at capture, de-duplicated by its iMessage identifier, and sealed to write-once WORM storage, where no one can alter or delete it. From there it is full-text and semantically searchable.
BYOD messaging archiving
The advisor keeps their phone. And their private life.
Rollouts stall when compliance asks advisors to give up their number, carry a second phone, or install a profile that management can see. RegFin Sync avoids all three.
What the advisor keeps
Their own iPhone and number
- ✓No second line, no number porting, no carrier change.
- ✓No mobile-device-management profile on the personal iPhone.
- ✓Personal threads with family and friends never enter the archive.
- ✓Capture is scoped to client and prospect contacts, matched during setup.
What the firm gets
A complete, provable record
- ✓Every covered iMessage retained against SEC Rule 204-2.
- ✓A SHA-256 hash at capture, then sealed to write-once WORM storage.
- ✓Keyword and policy review, with a human approving every escalation.
- ✓An exam export filtered by advisor, client, channel, and date.
Off-channel coverage
iMessage is the wedge. The messaging apps come with it.
Business text archiving does not stop at one app. RegFin captures the off-channel messaging platforms advisors reach for, each through the mechanism that platform actually supports.
Native
iMessage
Captured natively by RegFin Sync. Individual and group threads with client contacts, de-duplicated and sealed, with backfill where history is available.
SMS & MMS
Text messages and MMS captured by RegFin Sync on the same path as iMessage.
WhatsApp Business messages captured and sealed under the same retention and review as every other channel.
Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace mailboxes, captured directly through their APIs or a journaling feed. See communications archiving.
Social
LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram business activity, brought in through platform exports and, for Facebook and Instagram, direct API sync.
One archive, one review
Every channel lands in the same searchable archive under one policy engine, so a CCO reviews and produces from a single place. See the full archiving platform.
Retention and integrity
Kept long enough. Provably unchanged.
Rule 204-2 sets outcomes for adviser records: indexed, reproducible, and safeguarded from loss or alteration. RegFin meets them and lets you set the window.
— 01 · Capture
SHA-256 at capture
Every message is hashed at capture and sealed with our key, tamper-evident from the first byte.
— 02 · Store
Write-once WORM storage
Records land in dedicated write-once storage. Once written, no one can alter or delete them, not even RegFin.
— 03 · Retain
Six-year default
RegFin defaults to a six-year retention window and lets you configure it per firm. Rule 204-2(e)(1) sets a five-year floor for advisers; verify the current text.
— 04 · Produce
Exam export
Filter by advisor, client, channel, and date, then export a searchable set with checksums for an examiner request.
FAQ
The questions a CCO actually asks.
It is when the content is a covered business communication. Advisers Act Rule 204-2(a)(7) turns on what a written communication says, not the app it traveled on, so an iMessage about advice, client funds, or an order is a record just like an email. A message setting up lunch is not. For the rule text and the RIA-versus-broker-dealer distinction, see our archiving requirements guide, and verify every citation against the primary source.
Through RegFin Sync, set up once during onboarding. Nothing is installed on the advisor's iPhone and no management profile is required. RegFin Sync matches conversations against your firm's client and prospect contacts, archives only those covered threads, and, where message history is available, can backfill it so the archive does not have to start from zero.
No. Advisors keep their own iPhone and their existing number, and RegFin does not install a mobile-device-management profile on the personal phone. Capture happens through RegFin Sync without managing the device, so the advisor keeps full control of the phone and only conversations with client and prospect contacts are archived.
Both are covered. SMS, MMS, and WhatsApp business messages are captured alongside iMessage and land in the same archive, under the same retention and policy review.
A written ban by itself has not held up. The lesson from the SEC's off-channel enforcement is that a firm should either capture a channel used for advisory business or prohibit it through controls that are actively trained, monitored, tested, and enforced. Capturing iMessage removes the temptation to work around a policy, because the compliant channel is the one the advisor already uses. Our requirements guide covers the capture-or-enforce choice in detail.
RegFin defaults to a six-year retention window and lets you configure it per firm; Rule 204-2(e)(1) sets a five-year floor for advisers. WORM (write once, read many) is a broker-dealer format requirement under Exchange Act Rule 17a-4(f); Rule 204-2 does not use the term for advisers. It requires records be indexed, reproducible, and safeguarded from alteration. RegFin hashes every message at capture and seals it to write-once WORM storage, where records cannot be altered or deleted, which keeps them reproducible and safeguarded for the full retention window.
Close the off-channel gap
Capture the channel before anything is said.
See native iMessage capture in action, and how it fits the rest of your archiving. Have a look at pricing or start with the RIA compliance guide.
Book a demo →