Books and Records Policy Template for Investment Advisers

What the rule requires

Rule 204-2 lists the books and records an SEC-registered adviser must make and keep, from journals and ledgers to written communications about advice, advertisements and the records behind performance claims.

Most must be 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, and electronic records must meet the rule's conditions for storage, indexing and prompt production to the Commission.

What the policy covers

The sections of Luna's model Books and Records policy. Your draft includes only the clauses that apply to your firm.

1. 1Purpose, scope and responsibility
2. 2Records the Firm keeps
3. 3Retention periods and location
4. 4Electronic storage
5. 5Access and production
6. 6Destruction
7. 7Training, violations and cessation of business

What Luna asks you

A few of the questions that shape the draft:

• Whether the firm has custody of client assets
• Whether it votes proxies for clients
• Which communication channels business is done on
• Whether any records are kept longer than the rule requires

How drafting works

1. 01
   Answer questions about your firm

   Plain questions about how you operate. Where there is a common answer, Luna suggests it; where you are not sure, say so and it is flagged rather than assumed.

2. 02
   Luna drafts the policy

   Only the clauses that apply to your firm, in your firm's name, each traced to the rule or choice it comes from.

3. 03
   Review what is left

   Anything unanswered is marked in the text and listed for you, and the policy cannot be approved until each is settled.

4. 04
   Edit, approve and roll out

   It is your policy: edit it like any other, approve it, and have employees acknowledge it in the same place.

Read the source

• Books and Records Rule

Other policies

• Compliance Program
• Code of Ethics
• Marketing and Advertising
• Privacy and Identity Theft