3 Apps to Meet the SEC's Text Messaging Compliance Guidelines

To meet the SEC's compliance efforts to bring errant text messaging back into the fold of communications that companies file away, here are three simple apps that can bring wealth management firms up to code.

Why it matters: Seems easy, but it's a big bear for regulators, after a high-profile legal challenges found the evidence of client interaction was missing because business wasn't being conducted over normal email channels.

Driving the news: Judging by the tens of millions of dollars in fines, the dragon in the SEC was particularly angered, lashing out at more than a dozen major advisory companies for a seemingly victimless crime of moving off company email to less formal ways of replying to client questions with quick follow-ups. 

What they're saying: Financial Narratives got in touch with Eddie Green, CEO at SnippetSentry, a startup focused on this space and wealth manager Stoy Hall, CEO & Founder of Black Mammoth, an Investopedia Top 100 Financial Advisor, who walked us through the details of why he's switching from MyRepChat to RingCentral, which actually produced a whitepaper on this question.

Be smart: And, interestingly enough, the software underpinning  MyRepChat, which launched in 2017 as a solution for financial advisors, started life as a brand called Ionlake in 2016, growing along a windy path since 2006, and was originally known as TikiWade, an RSS-reader to make classified websites searchable from one location. 

The takeaway: If all your data can't be backed up to that one location -- your firm's server -- and easily searchable whenever there's trouble, the SEC could be coming for you!