It’s not really the case that all business-related communications need to be in written electronic archived searchable form. It’s just that they need to be either that or in person.1 There are two allowable levels of formality, (1) formal archived written communication and (2) in-person communication. Either is fine, but everything in between is suspect.
There is something counterintuitive about this. You might feel that texting your colleagues is like in-person communication, that it’s a substitute for informal face-to-face chatting, and that therefore it’s okay, but the SEC disagrees. To the SEC, texting is a substitute for official email, and if you text on an unrecorded personal phone you are getting around your firm’s recordkeeping requirements.
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