Rule explainer Not legal advice

What FINRA Rule 2210 asks of everything you publish

Read this to find the part of the rule that applies to the thing you are about to put out, in the rule's own words alongside plain English. It runs in the rule's order: what it calls your content, who signs it off, what gets filed, what it may say, and how long the file has to exist.

The ruleFINRA Rule 2210, Communications with the Public. The three-category structure below took effect on February 4, 2013 and replaced the older advertising rules FINRA inherited from the NASD. Last amended effective August 16, 2019. Source 1, numbered at the foot of this page.

How the rulebook changed

Before 2013Inherited NASD rulesAdvertising, sales literature and correspondence lived in older rules and interpretive notes carried over from the NASD.
February 4, 2013Three categories, one ruleEverything folds into 2210 and is sorted into three categories. Which is why the first question about a blog post is an arithmetic one.
August 16, 2019Last amendedThe most recent change. The text quoted on this page is the current one.

Scope

Does it reach you?

Three situations cover nearly everyone who lands here, and two of them make the rest of the page someone else's problem.

Who is boundThe obligations in Rule 2210 run to “members”, meaning FINRA member firms, and reach the people registered through them. Nothing in the rule attaches to an adviser who is not registered through a member. Source 1.

Your firm is a FINRA member broker-dealer

The rule reaches you

Everything the firm puts out in writing is a communication, and the rule sorts it into one of three boxes before anything else happens. Read on.

You are an investment adviser and nothing else

A different rulebook

This rule does not reach you at all. Your advertising rule is the SEC Marketing Rule if your firm is registered federally, or your state securities regulator's rule if it is registered with a state.

The rule that does apply →

You are registered on both sides

Both, at once

Common, and it does not resolve into a preference. One page can answer to both rulebooks, and which review it owes turns on the entity it speaks for and what it offers. Your compliance officer's call, page by page.

The first question

Three categories, decided by a head count

The rule sorts everything into correspondence, retail communications and institutional communications, and almost every later obligation depends on which box you land in. What decides the box is not the format or the platform. It is how many ordinary investors can see the thing inside a 30 calendar-day window. Drag the number.

The definitionsCorrespondence is written material made available to “25 or fewer retail investors within any 30 calendar-day period”. A retail communication is the same thing made available to “more than 25”. A retail investor is “any person other than an institutional investor, regardless of whether the person has an account with a member”. Source 1.

How many can see it, and what that makes it

Drag the number

Retail investors it is made available to, any 30 calendar days 1

Correspondence

A principal approves it before it goes up (b)(1)(A) Not this category
Supervision and review under the firm's procedures (b)(2) Required
Possibly filed with FINRA (c) Excluded

At 25 or fewer it is correspondence. It is still supervised and reviewed, and it still has to meet the content standards, but the named pre-approval step and the filing rules do not attach.

A public web page is never in the low box. The count is settled the moment you publish. The slider matters for newsletters and anything sent to a list. Source 1.

The third category comes with a trapdoor. Institutional communications carry their own supervision regime rather than pre-approval, but a firm may not treat something as institutional if it has reason to believe any part of it will be forwarded to a retail investor. A deck that circulates is not institutional because you addressed it that way.

Approval

Somebody has to sign it, by name

The sharpest difference between this rule and the adviser rulebook. That one sets standards and leaves your process to you. This one names a person, names a moment, and expects the firm to say who it was.

The line“An appropriately qualified registered principal of the member must approve each retail communication before the earlier of its use or filing with FINRA's Advertising Regulation Department.” Source 1.

Where firms think the relief is

It is only a blog post, so nobody needs to sign it.

There is real relief here, and it is narrower than the instinct. It reaches a retail communication that makes no recommendation and does not promote a product or service of the firm. A post ending in an invitation to book a meeting is promoting a service of the firm.

What the relief actually swaps

Named pre-approval is replaced by supervision, not by nothing.

Where it applies, the firm still supervises and reviews the material the way it does correspondence, under its own written procedures. The obligation changes shape rather than lifting, and the firm has to show what it did.

What the file has to contain once something has gone out: six fields, named in the rule

The thing itselfA copy of the communication, in a compliant format

When it first went outThe date of first use, and the date of last use where there is one

Who approved itThe name of the registered principal, and the date approval was given

Or who made itWhere no principal approved it first, the name of whoever prepared or distributed it

Where the numbers came fromInformation concerning the source of any table, chart, graph or other illustration used

The filing trailWhere a filing route was relied on, the firm that filed it and the review letter that came back

Read the fifth row again if you publish anything with a figure in it. A draft carrying a statistic and no provenance has made a records problem before anybody has read it for tone.

Filing

The part that genuinely goes to the regulator

Advisers are used to a world where nothing is pre-cleared. This rule is not that world. Some material goes to FINRA's Advertising Regulation Department before it can be used, some after, and most not at all.

Reading noteA firm's first year of membership carries its own pre-use filing obligation, and the rule spells out the media it covers, “including any generally accessible website”. Source 1.

FINRA Rule 2210(c), what goes where

Point at either side to link them

Verbatim

In plain English

(c)(1)(A)

For a period of one year beginning on the date reflected in the Central Registration Depository system as the date that FINRA membership became effective, the member must file with the Department at least 10 business days prior to first use any retail communication that is published or used in any electronic or other public media, including any generally accessible website

In plain EnglishA new firm files its public material and waits ten business days. For the first year a website launch is a filing event, and the timetable belongs to someone else.

(c)(3)

Within 10 business days of first use or publication, a member must file the following communications with the Department

In plain EnglishMaterial promoting a specific fund family, a public direct participation programme or certain other registered products goes in after it is out. Publish, then file, on a clock.

(c)(7)(C)

Retail communications that do not make any financial or investment recommendation or otherwise promote a product or service of the member

In plain EnglishThe exclusion most educational content relies on, and it is the same wording as the approval relief. The two questions answer together: a page promoting a service of the firm fails both.

(c)(6)

Upon written request from the Department, each member must submit the material requested in a spot-check procedure within the time frame specified by the Department

In plain EnglishSeparate from all of the above, and the reason the records section matters. FINRA can ask on its own schedule, and the answer is whatever your archive produces that day.

Quoted text is the rule's own. The right-hand column is our plain-English rendering, not part of the rule. Source 1.

Content standards

What a communication may and may not say

Six general standards open this part of the rule, and they are the ones an ordinary blog post runs into. Left, the text as written. Right, what it means for a page on your site.

Reading noteThe middle column is verbatim from (d)(1)(A) to (d)(1)(F). Paragraph numbers sit in the left margin so you can find each one in the source. Source 1.

FINRA Rule 2210(d)(1), as written

Point at either side to link them

Verbatim

In plain English

(d)(1)(A)

All member communications must be based on principles of fair dealing and good faith, must be fair and balanced, and must provide a sound basis for evaluating the facts in regard to any particular security or type of security, industry, or service

In plain EnglishThe reader has to be able to weigh what you are describing. A page that leaves someone enthusiastic but unable to evaluate anything has failed this, even where every sentence is true.

(d)(1)(B)

No member may make any false, exaggerated, unwarranted, promissory or misleading statement or claim in any communication

In plain EnglishFive words, and the middle three do the work. Exaggerated and unwarranted catch marketing language nobody would call a lie. Promissory catches the undertaking implied by a confident sentence.

(d)(1)(C)

Information may be placed in a legend or footnote only in the event that such placement would not inhibit an investor's understanding of the communication

In plain EnglishAn instruction about page design, sitting in a content rule. If the qualification is what makes the claim honest, it cannot live at the bottom in small grey type.

(d)(1)(D)

Members must ensure that statements are clear and not misleading within the context in which they are made, and that they provide balanced treatment of risks and potential benefits

In plain EnglishContext counts, so a sentence that is fine in one section can fail in another. Balanced is a judgement about weight and placement, not a risk paragraph bolted on at the end.

(d)(1)(E)

Members must consider the nature of the audience to which the communication will be directed and must provide details and explanations appropriate to the audience

In plain EnglishAn obligation almost no website meets on purpose. An open page has an audience you did not choose, which pushes the right level of explanation towards the least experienced reader who could arrive.

(d)(1)(F)

Communications may not predict or project performance, imply that past performance will recur or make any exaggerated or unwarranted claim, opinion or forecast

In plain EnglishFlatter than advisers expect. Three exceptions follow: illustrating a mathematical principle, output from a qualifying analysis tool, and a price target in a research report. Outside those, a forward-looking number is a problem.

Quoted text is the rule's own. Later paragraphs add standards for comparisons, tax language, fund fees, testimonials and recommendations. Source 1.

Two later standards are website problems rather than document problems. A testimonial about the firm's advice or performance carries three prominent disclosures every time, one of which attaches where more than $100 of value was paid for it. And the firm's own name has to be disclosed prominently. A reviews widget and a personal-brand banner each break one without anybody deciding to.

Records

How long a copy has to exist

The retention period does not live in this rule. Rule 2210 points at the broker-dealer books and records rule and adopts its clock, which is shorter than the adviser one.

RetentionCommunications are preserved “for a period of not less than three years, the first two years in an easily accessible place”, under the broker-dealer records rule that 2210 points to. Source 2.

The same article, under the two American rulebooks: the clock is not the same clock

If your firm is a broker-dealerThree years, the first two years in an easily accessible place

If your firm is an investment adviserFive years, the first two in an appropriate office of the adviser

What the broker-dealer file must showThe dates of first and, where there is one, last use

What the adviser clock keys onThe end of the fiscal year in which it was last put out, so a live page keeps restarting it

What both assumeThat a copy of what the page actually said still exists somewhere

That last row is a tooling decision, made long before anyone asks for the file. A system that overwrites a page in place and keeps no earlier version has already decided what your firm can produce.

One section about our software, then back to the rule

What Verand checks of this rule

Everything above stands whether or not you buy anything. The answer to the heading is the shortest one on this website.

The answer

None of it. Verand does not gate content against FINRA Rule 2210.

There is no 2210 rulebook inside the product. Name FINRA or Regulation Best Interest as your regulator and nothing loads for it: no category test, no approval step, no filing clock, no check on the furniture of your site. A broker-dealer firm gets the general high-trust floor every site gets, and that floor was not written from this rule.

The rulebook we did write for financial advisors is the SEC Marketing Rule. If you are dually registered, that one is checking your adviser side and it is not checking this.

What the general floor does

Blocks six claim types outright in any draft: guaranteed results, guaranteed returns, cannot-lose, get-rich-quick, risk-free and zero-risk. The last two release only on a written, logged reason from someone at your firm.
Warns rather than blocks on sweeping advice aimed at everybody.
Requires a disclaimer block to be present, and holds a minimum of three cited sources with at least one primary regulator or government source.
Keeps a versioned copy of every draft, the one habit that helps with the records rule above, though nothing in the product knows that rule exists.

What it does not do

No principal approval. It does not know who your qualified principal is and it does not route anything to them.
No head count. It cannot see your distribution list, so it cannot tell you which side of the 25-person line something falls on.
No filing. Nothing goes to the Advertising Regulation Department and no deadline is tracked.
No reading of the content standards above. Balance, detail suited to the audience and the placement of a legend are judgements it does not make.
It does not publish. A person at your firm presses the button, and no setting changes that.

Verand does not gate against FINRA Rule 2210 and does not claim to. Where a rulebook does apply to your firm, our packs are AI-researched and operator-reviewed against the published rules. Your compliance officer confirms applicability. Not legal advice. How we label review →

Verand for financial advisors The rule we do gate against →

Questions

The ones that come up

About the rule, not about our software. Each points at the paragraph it comes from.

Is my blog a retail communication?

If it is open to the public, yes, and the reasoning is arithmetic rather than editorial. The category turns on being made available to more than 25 retail investors in any 30 calendar-day period, and an open page is available to everyone.

Does a principal have to approve every post?

Not every one. The rule lifts named pre-approval for a retail communication that makes no recommendation and does not promote a product or service of the firm, provided the firm supervises and reviews it the way it does correspondence. Real, and narrow: a call to action is promoting a service.

Can I write about what a strategy might return?

Communications may not predict or project performance. Three exceptions follow, and the first is the one people mean: an illustration of a mathematical principle is allowed as long as it does not project the performance of an investment or a strategy. Showing how compounding works is not showing what this portfolio would do.

A client posted a glowing review. Can I put it on the site?

With three prominent disclosures attached: that it may not represent other customers' experience, that it is no guarantee of future performance or success, and, if more than $100 of value was paid for it, that it was paid for. A reviews widget does none of this.

Does it matter that a draft was written with AI?

The rule never asks what produced the words. It asks who approved them, when, and what the file holds. Where an AI draft touches this rule is provenance: the file has to carry the source of any table, chart or figure used.

Sources

Where every line came from

Primary sources only. Quoted phrases are the rules' own words, read from the rulebook rather than from a summary. Everything else is our plain-English rendering, worth checking against the text.

1FINRA Rule 2210, Communications with the Public. Definitions at (a), approval and records at (b), filing at (c), content standards at (d). FINRA rulebook 217 CFR 240.17a-4, broker-dealer records, at (b) and (b)(4). The retention period Rule 2210 adopts. Cornell Legal Information Institute 317 CFR 275.206(4)-1, the SEC Marketing Rule, for the adviser-side comparison. Cornell Legal Information Institute 417 CFR 275.204-2, adviser books and records, at (a)(11), for the five-year clock. Cornell Legal Information Institute

Paragraph references are to FINRA Rule 2210 unless another rule is named. Last checked against these sources on September 17, 2026. Not legal advice.

Elsewhere in this section

The next questions this one raises

Hub

Verand for financial advisors

What the software does, and refuses to do.

/financial-advisors Explainer

The SEC Marketing Rule and your website

The adviser rulebook, end to end, in its own order.

/sec-marketing-rule Explainer

Is a financial advisor blog an advertisement?

The adviser-side definition, with the cases on the line.

/what-counts-as-advertising Checklist

Financial advisor blog disclaimer requirements

What a standing disclaimer needs to say.

/disclaimer-requirements Question

Can financial advisors use AI to write content?

What the rules ask of a draft, whatever produced it.

/using-ai-to-write-content Trust

How we label compliance review

Operator-reviewed, not attorney-verified, and why we print it.

/compliance-standards

The rule we do gate is the one next door.

For registered investment advisers, Verand drafts in the firm's voice and runs the SEC Marketing Rule checks before a reviewer sees anything. A person at the firm still presses publish.

Start for Free Verand for advisors →

Packs are AI-researched and operator-reviewed against the governing body's published rules. Not attorney-verified. Not legal advice.