Every organization that handles sensitive or regulated information has recordkeeping obligations. In the financial and public service sectors, the rules are especially strict, as are the consequences. Emails, texts, Slack threads, direct messages (DMs), internal chats—every communication related to business or governance counts as a record. Failing to preserve them can bring regulatory action, public backlash, or both.
This article outlines key recordkeeping rules for financial firms, legal teams, public-service organizations, and other entities. It also shows you how archiving tools like Pagefreezer support complicated compliance efforts by capturing and preserving digital communications in an easy-to-access and defensible format.
SEC Recordkeeping Rules For Investment Advisers
Almost all sectors are bound by strict recordkeeping rules, but financial firms have particularly stringent requirements. All registered investment advisers, for starters, must comply with Rule 204-2 enforced by the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC), which requires them to maintain accurate and complete “books and records” related to their business.
The foundations of these requirements were laid out in the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. Since then, multiple revisions to the Advisers Act recordkeeping rules have brought new “records” under its ambit. This includes client communications across digital channels, performance reports, and advertising materials, among others.
The rules state that records must be preserved for at least five years from the end of the fiscal year in which they were created. For the first two years, they must be stored in the firm’s principal office. After that, they can be kept off-site, but must remain accessible and retrievable.
Digital storage is allowed. However, records must be secured against unauthorized changes, indexed for searchability, and made available in a format that accurately reproduces the original document. They must also be provided promptly upon request by the SEC.
Records should include any and all communications related to financial advice or client decisions. That includes messages sent via email, messaging apps, or collaboration tools. If the content is business-related, the channel doesn’t matter—it needs to be captured.
In 2024, the New York-based organization Senvest learned this fact the hard way when the SEC served an enforcement action notice. The regulator found Senvest guilty of multiple infractions, including failing to collect and preserve official records of electronic communications between employees. The firm paid a penalty of $6.5 million and left the rest of us with a valuable lesson.
The North American Securities Administrators’ Association (NASAA) maintains similar recordkeeping rules for investment agencies and also outlines some recordkeeping best practices.
These best practices include answering the four Ws and one H commonly applied in journalism:
- Who is responsible for records and who has access to them?
- What records should be stored and in what format?
- When will audits be conducted and records be updated?
- Where will the records and back-ups be stored?
- How will you organize records and provide them to regulators?
Investment advisers who meticulously answer each question are more prepared—and more likely to ensure compliance with various regulations.
SEC & FINRA Recordkeeping Rules For Broker-Dealers
Broker-dealers are also governed by several recordkeeping rules, as laid out in the SEC Rules 17a-3 and 17a-4, as well as FINRA Rule 4511. These rules require firms to create and preserve records that document their operations. They encompass a vast range of documents, including purchase and sale records, financial documents, customer records, complaints, and communications with clients or peers.
As per the rules, electronic records must be stored in a format that prevents alteration—often referred to as WORM (Write Once, Read Many). The records may have to be stored for up to six years. Firms must also be able to demonstrate oversight of employees’ communication methods. This includes the use of personal devices and messaging platforms, such as WhatsApp, iMessage, and others.
FINRA, for its part, has taken aggressive enforcement action in recent years. Multiple firms have been fined for failing to supervise off-channel communications, not preserving messages sent through unofficial apps, or failing to notify regulators about recordkeeping systems.
To make things more complex, the rules are subject to changes. In 2022, for instance, the SEC introduced several amendments to Rules 17a-3 and 17a-4. The changes sought to ease the process for broker-dealers, but they also highlight the dynamic nature of recordkeeping rules and the ephemeral nature of digital communications.
FOIA Recordkeeping Rules For Government Agencies
While not usually bound by FINRA or SEC regulations, government bodies aren’t exempt from recordkeeping rules. All federal agencies must comply with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) guidelines, while state and local agencies are subject to equivalent public records laws.
These laws require public-serving agencies to preserve records related to their official activities and make them available upon request. Again, that includes emails, internal chat logs, mobile messages, social media posts, and even versions of public websites.
Most states and courts agree that the format of a record is irrelevant—if it relates to public business, it is considered a public record. So, even if a message or post was sent from a personal device, posted on a third-party platform, or has since been deleted or modified, it must be retained and stored on record.
Agencies that fail to preserve these files may face lawsuits, fines, and public scrutiny. In some jurisdictions, intentional destruction of public records is a criminal offense that could invite more trouble in the form of litigation.
Other Key Recordkeeping Rules
While financial firms and public agencies face some of the strictest regulations, many other sectors must also adhere to specific recordkeeping rules. Some examples:
- Labor laws: OSHA, EEOC, and the National Labor Relations Act require documentation of safety incidents, complaints, and disciplinary actions.
- Discrimination & DEI claims: HR teams must retain communications related to hiring, promotions, investigations, and employee feedback.
- Litigation holds: When legal action is anticipated, companies must preserve all relevant records—including internal chat messages and informal notes.
- Public company reporting: The Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act requires preservation of financial data and internal controls documentation.
- Privacy laws: The GDPR and HIPAA impose specific retention requirements to protect the privacy of individuals.
This is not an exhaustive list. Organizations often invest heavily in creating teams that monitor and maintain compliance with regulations, but many still fall short of the requirements. This is where an archiving tool like Pagefreezer can help cover some recordkeeping responsibilities.
The Cost of Getting It Wrong
Failure to follow recordkeeping rules is one of the most common—and expensive—compliance challenges for financial firms.
In September 2022, the SEC and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) fined 11 firms a combined $1.8 billion for widespread use of unauthorized messaging platforms like WhatsApp and Signal. Employees were found to have communicated official business on personal devices, and their firms failed to capture those messages.
One of those firms, Wells Fargo, paid $125 million. A short while later, another major bank, JP Morgan, paid the CFTC $200 million for similar infractions, as employees used personal accounts to discuss business. The company failed to maintain those records.
While fines and non-compliance penalties hit hardest, the indirect costs of recordkeeping also add up.
Organizations that rely on manual recordkeeping policies, for instance, may struggle with productivity. A 2018 study found that the process of scanning, tagging, and filing a single page of a record can take employees up to five minutes. For agencies and teams tasked with maintaining tens of thousands of records (or more), the cost of labor is not insignificant.
Why Compliant Recordkeeping Is Difficult
Most organizations don’t struggle with recordkeeping because they don’t care enough. They struggle because modern communication moves fast and takes place everywhere. Employees use Slack, Teams, Zoom, text messages, mobile apps, and social media to communicate.
Some accounts and tools are official. Some aren’t. Some are company-controlled. Others aren’t.
Moreover, messages can be deleted, edited, or lost in an app’s history. Third-party platforms may not be open to sharing data, leaving many IT teams unable to see what’s going on outside the company network. Manual archiving, which many organizations still rely on, is unreliable, prone to error, and inefficient.
Meanwhile, regulators and public records requestors expect full access to information. They want answers fast and full transparency. If you can’t produce records on demand—or if records were never captured in the first place—your organization is at significant risk of fines, sanctions, litigation, reputational damage, and even loss of trust with the public.
How Pagefreezer Helps
Pagefreezer solves these problems with a platform designed for modern recordkeeping compliance in financial services, government, and other regulated industries. Some of its capabilities include:
- Real-time capture: Pagefreezer automatically archives websites, social media content, internal communication channels, and other digital communications as they happen.
- WORM-compliant storage: Data is preserved in tamper-proof format with full audit trails, metadata, and timestamps.
- Searchable interface: Users can find and export records quickly through full-text search, making internal audits, eDiscovery requests, and records requests easier to manage.
- Compliance mapping: Pagefreezer supports SEC, FINRA, FOIA, and other frameworks, with configuration options tailored to specific industry needs.
Whether you work in finance, legal, HR, or public administration, Pagefreezer helps ensure that digital records are captured, stored, and accessible when needed.
The Bottom Line
Recordkeeping is a legal obligation that often leaves organizations vulnerable. When communications go unrecorded, organizations open themselves up to numerous risks, including fines, lawsuits, bad press, and operational failures.
As recordkeeping rules tighten and communication tools diversify, regulators remain relatively unsympathetic to excuses. The solution isn’t more policy documents; it’s better systems. Pagefreezer gives you control over your records, your risk, and your response. By doing so, your organization stays compliant and ready.
Book a demo today, and let us show you how to reduce risk, increase recordkeeping efficiency, and gain peace of mind with Pagefreezer.
