If you’re a professional archivist, one of the things you should archive is email. If you’re a Registered Investment Advisor, one of the things you MUST archive is email.
A Registered Investment Advisor, or RIA, “is a person or firm who advises high-net-worth individuals on investments and manages their portfolios. As the first word of their title indicates, RIAs are required to register either with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) or state securities administrators.”
RIAs frequently communicate with their clients via email. And according to the SECs’ Books and Records Rule, emails and their attachments are something RIAs must archive for a period of five years, the most recent two of which must be stored on-site or immediately accessible from the office. Cloud-based systems are assumed to be on-site.
According to an article on the IRIS website:
Email messages that fall under the Books and Records Rule are those sent or received by employees of RIAs that fall into any of these categories:
- Any recommendations or advice proposed or given
- Any receipt, disbursement or delivery of funds or securities
- Communications relating to the placing or execution of any security trade
And more generally, communications with clients regarding:
- Compliance Program
- Client Management
- Trading
- Marketing
- Business Management
- Potentially others, depending on your RIA’s specific business practices
You know you need email archiving, but which one to get? Afterall, not all email archiving solutions are created equal.
There are a few key features you should look for when choosing an email archiving solution. First, you’ll want it to integrate seamlessly with your existing email solution, whether that’s on-premises or one of the big platform email providers like Office 365 or G Suite. This way you won’t need to change or upgrade anything.
Second, you should probably opt for a cloud-based solution. Not only won’t you have to purchase infrastructure and grow as you need, but you’ll also have access to your archive from everywhere.
Finally, you’ll want to make sure the archiving solution you choose has filtering, tagging and advanced search capabilities so you’ll be able to find what you’re looking for fast.
If you’re unsure where to start, check out DuoCircle’s Email Archiving Solution. You can get it for as little as $5/user/month with no minimum number of users.