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Communications archiving is the capture, storage, and retrieval of business communications, including email, text messages, social media, and instant messaging, in a WORM-compliant format that satisfies regulatory recordkeeping requirements.

For SEC and FINRA regulated firms, archiving is not optional. It is a legal requirement governing how long records must be kept, in what format, and how quickly they must be produced during an examination or legal proceeding.

Any firm registered with the SEC or FINRA must archive business-related communications. This includes broker-dealers (FINRA Rule 4511, SEC Rule 17a-4), registered investment advisors (SEC Rule 204-2), investment companies, and firms subject to FINRA Rules 2210 and 3110.

If an advisor, representative, or employee uses any channel, email, text, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, for business purposes, that channel must be archived.

The primary rules are SEC Rule 17a-4 (broker-dealer records retention), SEC Rule 17a-3 (records to be made), SEC Rule 204-2 (RIA books and records), FINRA Rules 4511, 3110, 3120, and 2210. Each rule governs different aspects of the recordkeeping obligation, including what must be kept, for how long, in what format, and how supervision must work.

State securities regulators may impose additional requirements. Firms operating in multiple jurisdictions should work with counsel to map their full compliance landscape.

Three things separate Archive Intel from the field: official platform partnerships (including LinkedIn Sales-Integration Compliance Partner status), contextual AI that surfaces supervision risk rather than burying compliance teams in volume, and deep financial services specialization.

Archive Intel was built for SEC and FINRA regulated firms, not adapted from a general-purpose tool. Our team understands the examination process, the regulatory language, and what examiners look for when they walk in the door.

Archive Intel serves firms of all sizes, from solo RIAs and independent advisory practices to large broker-dealers with thousands of registered representatives. Our pricing, onboarding, and support model are designed to work at both ends of the size spectrum.

Smaller firms often have less compliance infrastructure, which is exactly where the operational simplicity of Archive Intel's setup process matters most.

Archive Intel captures email (Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, and others), text messages and SMS/MMS (personal and corporate devices), LinkedIn (messages, posts, comments, reactions, InMail, profile activity), Twitter/X, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, WhatsApp, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Slack, WeChat, and more.

We also capture and flag AI-generated communications through our Contextual AI layer. Visit our channels page for the current full list.

Yes. Archive Intel captures SMS and MMS from both firm-issued and personal devices. Personal device capture typically requires enrollment of a lightweight mobile profile, which is industry standard for any compliant personal device text archiving solution.

The SEC and FINRA do not distinguish between personal and firm-issued devices. If an advisor uses their personal iPhone to send a client a business text, that text is a business record.

Yes. Archive Intel is one of a select group of vendors that captures LinkedIn through a direct, official integration. As an Official LinkedIn Regulatory Compliance Partner, Archive Intel accesses LinkedIn content through the LinkedIn Compliance API, which is available to vendors that have passed Microsoft and LinkedIn's due diligence process.

We capture direct messages, InMail, posts, reposts, comments, reactions, profile updates, images, video, and file attachments in their original context. No scraping. No third-party workarounds.

Yes. Given that regulators have assessed major fines specifically for unarchived WhatsApp communications, capturing this channel is a priority for most regulated firms. Archive Intel captures WhatsApp Business communications, and personal WhatsApp capture is available through specific device enrollment.

Contact us to discuss your firm's WhatsApp use patterns and the right capture approach for your situation.

Yes. Archive Intel captures Microsoft Teams messages (chats, channels, files shared) and Zoom chat communications. For video call recordings, capture and retention depends on your Zoom or Teams configuration and plan tier. Our team will walk you through exactly what is and is not captured for your specific setup during onboarding.

Yes. Archive Intel's Contextual AI layer captures and flags AI-assisted and AI-generated communications. As advisors increasingly use AI drafting tools for client outreach and proposals, regulators expect those communications to be retained and supervised the same as any other business record.

Archive Intel identifies AI-generated content within the archive and surfaces it for supervisory review, giving compliance teams visibility without having to manually review every message.

Archive Intel captures communications in their full context, text, emojis, file attachments, images, video, and links, exactly as they appeared at the time of sending. For social media, we capture the full post including any embedded media.

All captures include metadata: sender, recipient, timestamp, device/platform, and any edits or deletions after initial send (where the platform allows). The original content is preserved even if the sender later edits or deletes it.

SEC Rule 17a-4 sets the preservation requirements for broker-dealer electronic records. Records must be stored in a non-rewriteable, non-erasable WORM format, be readily accessible for at least two years, and be preserved for a total of six years. The rule also requires firms to designate a third-party custodian who can produce records to the SEC on demand.

Archive Intel's storage infrastructure meets the technical WORM requirements of Rule 17a-4. Our third-party custodian arrangement satisfies the designated backup requirement.

FINRA Rule 4511 requires member firms to maintain books and records in a format consistent with SEC Rule 17a-4. Critically, this rule covers all business communications by registered representatives, regardless of the channel. Text messages, LinkedIn, Instagram DMs, WhatsApp, and any other platform used for business-related communication all fall under Rule 4511.

FINRA has assessed fines exceeding $1.8 billion against broker-dealers for failure to capture and retain off-channel communications. The enforcement posture has intensified significantly since 2022.

SEC Rule 204-2, the "Books and Records" rule, applies to all Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs) and requires retention of correspondence related to investment advice, including recommendations, research, and all client communications. Records must generally be kept for five years, with the first two years in an easily accessible location.

If your advisors use text messages, LinkedIn, or any other channel to communicate with clients about investment matters, those communications are records subject to Rule 204-2. Archive Intel supports full RIA recordkeeping compliance.

Retention requirements vary by firm type and record type. Broker-dealers under SEC Rule 17a-4 must retain most business communications for three years minimum, with some records requiring six years. The first two years must be in an easily accessible format. RIAs under Rule 204-2 generally retain records for five years.

Archive Intel allows you to configure retention policies by channel and record type. Our compliance team can help you map your specific requirements when you onboard.

WORM stands for "Write Once, Read Many", the storage standard required by SEC Rule 17a-4 that prevents archived records from being altered, overwritten, or deleted. Once a communication is written to WORM storage, it cannot be modified by anyone, including your firm, your IT team, or Archive Intel.

Archive Intel stores all captured communications in WORM-compliant cloud infrastructure. The integrity of your records is guaranteed and survives any internal changes, personnel departures, or attempts to suppress communications after the fact.

Examiners may request specific communications records within a short timeframe, sometimes 24 to 48 hours. They typically request records for specific advisors, date ranges, and topics. Inability to produce records promptly, or gaps in the archive, is itself a violation and can significantly expand the scope of the examination.

Archive Intel's search and export tools are designed specifically for examination response. Compliance officers can query across all channels by user, date, keyword, or channel type and produce a formatted export immediately, without IT involvement.

FINRA Rule 3110 requires member firms to establish and maintain a supervisory system covering all business activities, including the review of correspondence and communications. Archiving is the foundation of this system, you cannot review what you have not captured.

Archive Intel's supervision tools use contextual AI to automatically surface high-risk communications, flagging potential suitability issues, complaint-related language, off-channel solicitation, and other patterns, so supervisors can focus review time where it matters most instead of manually reviewing every message.

FINRA Rule 2210 governs communications with the public, including retail communications, correspondence, and institutional communications. Social media posts made by registered representatives that relate to the firm's business, products, or securities are subject to Rule 2210 and must be reviewed, approved where required, and retained.

Archive Intel's AI Marketing Review feature helps compliance teams review social content before publication. Combined with post-publication capture and retention, Archive Intel covers both the pre-approval and archiving requirements of Rule 2210.

Archive Intel stores all data in secure, encrypted cloud infrastructure located in the United States. All data is encrypted in transit using TLS and at rest using AES-256 encryption. Our storage environment meets the WORM requirements of SEC Rule 17a-4 and uses enterprise-grade access controls.

Data residency options are available for firms with specific jurisdictional requirements. Contact us to discuss your data residency needs.

Archive Intel maintains SOC 2 Type II compliance. Our security controls are independently audited to verify that we meet the Trust Services Criteria for security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy.

We provide a copy of our SOC 2 report to prospective clients under NDA during the evaluation process. Ask your sales contact to include it in your due diligence package.

No. Once a communication is captured and written to the archive, it cannot be modified or deleted by anyone, including the employee who sent it, your firm's administrators, or Archive Intel. This is the core of WORM compliance.

If an employee deletes a message from the original platform (LinkedIn, text, etc.) after it has been captured, the archived version remains intact and unchanged. The deletion event itself is also logged.

Yes, and firms are generally required to notify employees. Archive Intel recommends (and in many jurisdictions, regulations require) that firms inform employees in writing that business communications on specified channels are subject to capture and supervisory review.

Transparency is both a legal best practice and an effective deterrent for non-compliant behavior. Archive Intel provides sample employee disclosure and acknowledgment language as part of onboarding.

Immediately. Archive Intel's search interface allows compliance officers to query the full archive by keyword, user, date range, channel, or any combination. Results are returned in seconds. All records within the active retention window are in hot storage, there is no wait for retrieval from cold storage.

Export packages formatted for regulatory production (examination requests, legal holds, litigation discovery) are generated in minutes, not hours or days.

Archive Intel uses role-based access control. Compliance officers and supervisors have full search and review access. Individual employees can only view their own archived communications when given access. Firm administrators control user permissions.

All access events are logged in an audit trail, including who searched, what they queried, and what records they exported. This audit trail is itself an archived record.

Archive Intel integrates through official APIs and platform partnerships, not browser extensions, screen capture, or device-level agents in most cases. For email, we connect through Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace API journaling. For social media platforms with compliance APIs, we connect through those official channels. For text messages, we use mobile device management integrations or carrier-level capture depending on your setup.

Your IT team's involvement is minimal for most channel integrations. Our onboarding team handles technical configuration.

Most clients are fully live within two to four weeks for core channels like email and text. Social media and messaging platform integrations are typically completed within the same window. LinkedIn setup, which requires direct API credentialing through the LinkedIn Compliance Partner program, may take slightly longer depending on your LinkedIn account configuration.

Archive Intel's onboarding team manages the technical setup end to end. You will have a dedicated onboarding contact from kickoff through go-live.

Not necessarily. For most integrations, Archive Intel's onboarding team handles configuration. You will need someone with admin access to your email platform (Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace) and, for personal device text capture, someone to manage mobile enrollment. Many of our clients are small RIA firms with no in-house IT staff, our onboarding process is designed for that reality.

Archive Intel can ingest historical data from prior archiving vendors or other sources for most channels. We support bulk email imports and can work with your team on a migration plan for other channels. We recommend maintaining access to your prior archive for the remaining portion of its regulatory retention period in parallel with Archive Intel.

Our onboarding team will guide you through the migration to ensure there are no compliance gaps in your record.

Yes. Archive Intel's API allows data to flow into third-party compliance platforms, case management systems, and risk tools. We also offer native supervision and review tools within Archive Intel for teams that prefer a consolidated platform.

Contact us to discuss your current compliance technology stack and how Archive Intel fits into it.

New employee enrollment for email and most social channels is managed through your admin portal, adding a licensed user to the monitored group typically takes minutes. For text message archiving, personal device enrollment is completed by the employee via the mobile enrollment process.

When an employee departs, their archived records are preserved for the full regulatory retention period regardless of their employment status. This is a regulatory requirement, records cannot be deleted because someone left the firm.

Archive Intel is priced per user, per month, with the rate depending on the number of channels captured and the size of your firm. We offer pricing for firms of all sizes, from independent RIAs to large broker-dealers.

Book a demo to receive a customized quote based on your specific channel mix, user count, and retention requirements. We do not publish standard pricing because every firm's compliance footprint is different.

Yes. Many clients start with their highest-risk or highest-volume channel, often text messaging or LinkedIn, and expand to additional channels as their compliance program develops or as regulatory pressure increases on specific communication types. Archive Intel's platform is modular by design.

Archive Intel offers a live, personalized demo tailored to your firm's specific channels and compliance questions. The demo includes a walkthrough of capture, supervision, and search and export features, plus time to answer your specific compliance questions. Book a demo here.

We do not offer self-service free trials, the compliance questions involved in setup are too firm-specific for a generic trial to be meaningful.

Annual contracts are standard. Given that regulatory retention requirements run for multiple years, most clients benefit from multi-year agreements that lock in pricing and ensure continuous coverage without gaps. Your sales contact will walk you through contract options during the demo.

Implementation costs vary based on the number of channels, the complexity of your environment (number of users, existing archiving vendor migration, mobile device management setup), and whether historical data import is required. Your sales contact will include a detailed implementation scope and cost estimate as part of your proposal.