Off-channel communications: are your Teams chats, texts and AI notetakers archived?

Which rules decide whether a chat or text is a record?

SEC Rule 204-2(a)(7) decides for investment advisers, and Exchange Act Rule 17a-4(b)(4), backed by FINRA Rule 4511, decides for broker-dealers. Neither rule turns on which app carried the message. Both turn on what the message is about, and a business message the firm cannot capture is an off-channel communication.

Rule 204-2(a)(7) requires an adviser to keep originals of written communications received, and copies of those sent, that relate to any recommendation made or proposed, any advice given or proposed, the receipt, disbursement or delivery of funds or securities, or the placing or execution of any order. Under Rule 204-2(e)(1), those records are kept for at least five years from the end of the fiscal year of the last entry, the first two in an appropriate office of the adviser.

The broker-dealer standard is broader. Rule 17a-4(b)(4) covers originals of all communications received and copies of all communications sent relating to the firm's business as such, kept for at least three years, the first two in an easily accessible place. FINRA's 2026 Annual Regulatory Oversight Report describes that requirement as covering business communications "received and sent via email, instant message, text message, chat message and interactive blog."

A dual-registered firm sits under both standards, and most build a single capture policy to the broader one.

Are off-channel communications still an exam issue?

Yes. Off-channel communications remain an exam issue because the recordkeeping rules have not changed, even though the SEC's enforcement emphasis has, and FINRA continues to report findings.

In its fiscal 2025 enforcement results, released April 7, 2026, the SEC noted that the prior Commission brought 95 actions and obtained $2.3 billion in penalties since fiscal 2022 against firms for failing to maintain and preserve off-channel communications, and described those cases as a misallocation of resources. That is a statement about enforcement priorities. Rule 204-2 and Rule 17a-4 read the same as they did, and an examiner who asks for client communications about a recommendation still expects the firm to produce them.

FINRA's 2026 report lists findings that include not retaining and reviewing business-related text messages, not reviewing electronic communications for signs of off-channel use, associated persons using personal email or other off-channel platforms with customers, and not performing adequate due diligence on third-party vendors' ability to meet recordkeeping requirements.

Where do Microsoft Teams chats usually fall through?

Teams chats usually fall through in features firms never thought of as client communications, such as external chats, meeting chats and shared files. Teams is often approved for internal use and gradually becomes a client channel.

Places worth checking before year-end:

• One-to-one and group chats, including chats with external guests or users from other organizations.
• Channel posts and replies, and messages edited or deleted after sending.
• Meeting chats, which persist after the meeting ends.
• Files shared in chat, which land in OneDrive or SharePoint rather than the mailbox.
• Meeting recordings and transcripts, if the firm allows them.

Whether each of these is captured depends on the firm's retention configuration and its archiving vendor. A Microsoft 365 license alone does not settle it. The year-end question is whether someone has tested an export of each one, rather than assumed it.

Do business text messages to clients have to be archived?

Yes, when the content qualifies. A text about advice, a recommendation, funds or an order at an adviser, or about the business at a broker-dealer, falls under the same retention rules as email, regardless of the device. The practical question is whether the firm can capture it.

Firms generally take one of three approaches: prohibit business texting and monitor for it, provide a firm-managed number or app that archives messages, or capture texts on firm-issued phones. Among the effective practices in FINRA's report is monitoring for "a decrease or absence of activity on certain previously used firm-approved communication channels or tools," which can signal that conversations moved somewhere the firm cannot see. A prohibition that is never tested is weak evidence.

Are AI notetaker summaries and transcripts books and records?

They can be. No SEC or FINRA rule names AI notetakers, so firms apply the existing content tests, and a transcript or summary of a client meeting that discusses a recommendation or an order looks a lot like the communications these rules describe. The decision about how to treat it belongs in the firm's written procedures.

FINRA has said its rules are technology neutral. Regulatory Notice 24-09 states that "the rules apply when member firms use AI, including Gen AI or similar technologies, in the course of their business." FINRA's 2026 report on generative AI identifies summarization and information extraction as the top generative AI use case among member firms, and lists storing prompt and output logs among the monitoring practices it observed.

Notetakers raise questions a firm should answer in writing:

• Which tools are approved, and are personal or free notetakers blocked from joining client calls?
• Where do transcripts, recordings and summaries land, and are those locations under retention and archiving?
• If an adviser edits an AI summary before saving it to the CRM, which version is kept?
• Does the vendor keep its own copies, and can the firm retrieve them during an exam?

Whether a particular artifact is a required record is a question for the firm's compliance team and counsel. The technology question is simpler: if the firm decides it is a record, can it produce it, unaltered, for the full retention period?

What should the storage itself look like?

Record storage should be locked against alteration and quickly retrievable. Rule 204-2(g) lets an adviser keep records electronically if it has procedures to reasonably safeguard them from loss, alteration or destruction, limits access to authorized personnel and the SEC, and can promptly provide complete, legible copies. Broker-dealers have separate electronic storage conditions in Rule 17a-4(f).

For most firms, that means a dedicated archive with retention locks, rather than a mailbox setting any administrator can change.

What should you check before December 31?

A short, documented review covers most of the risk:

• Inventory every channel: email, Teams chat and channels, text, social messaging, CRM notes, and every AI tool that touches client conversations.
• Mark each channel approved, prohibited, or approved with conditions, and put that list in your written procedures.
• Run a test export from the archive for one adviser and one client across each approved channel, and keep the result.
• Check Teams retention and archiving for external chats, meeting chats, edited and deleted messages, and recordings.
• Ask each archiving and AI vendor, in writing, how it captures, stores and produces records, and file the answers. FINRA lists testing recordkeeping vendors' capabilities as an effective practice.
• Review surveillance for off-channel indicators, including keyword lists and drops in activity on approved channels.
• Record the review itself, with a date and the name of the person who ran it.

How does s90 help?

s90 manages Microsoft 365, archiving integrations and AI tool controls for RIAs, broker-dealers and dual-registered firms in Los Angeles and Orange County. We can run the channel inventory and test exports alongside your CCO and document the results for your annual review. Broker-dealers can reuse the same archive reports in the evidence file for the FINRA remote inspection pilot. If that would help before year-end, start with a conversation.