Built for broker-dealers and dually-registered advisors
The FINRA-compliant CRM that handles Rule 4511 retention, Rule 2210 content review, and Rule 3110 supervision in one place.
If you are a broker-dealer, a dually-registered advisor, or a wealth firm with a BD affiliation, your CRM has to carry FINRA books-and-records retention, pre-send content review, and supervisory sign-off. Strkr ships each as a first-class capability instead of a configurable workaround.
FINRA compliance is where most CRM evaluations at broker-dealers quietly stall. Rule 4511 wants books and records retained for 6 years with the first 2 easily accessible. Rule 2210 wants retail communications pre-reviewed by a principal before they go out. Rule 3110 wants documented supervisory procedures that an exam can follow. SEC Rule 17a-4(f) wants WORM-compliant storage or (post-2022 amendments) an audit-trail alternative with cryptographic integrity. Then layer on Reg BI, which reshaped the retail recommendation evidence trail in 2020, and the 2024 Regulatory Priorities letter that put communications and books-and-records back near the top of the FINRA exam focus list. Horizontal CRMs do not model this surface. Vertical wealth CRMs (Redtail, Wealthbox, Junxure) handle some of it. Email surveillance archives (Smarsh, Global Relay, Mimecast) handle the archive side but not the CRM-native supervision workflow. The practical result is a stack of 3 to 5 tools that have to be reconciled in an exam, and the operations lead at every BD we talk to has the same frustrated question: why is this still so hard in 2026.
FINRA Rule 4511 retention
Six years, three immediately accessible, every record class.
FINRA Rule 4511 (incorporating SEC Rule 17a-3 and 17a-4 requirements) requires books-and-records retention for 6 years, with the first 2 years immediately accessible, across customer communications, account records, trade blotters, supervisory records, and advertising. Most horizontal CRMs retain for 1 to 2 years by default; most wealth CRMs retain if configured. Strkr's broker-dealer tier applies the 6-year clock to every record class automatically with the 2-year immediate-access partition, so the retention evidence is a report rather than a gap you discover in an exam.
FINRA Rule 2210 pre-review
The content-review queue the Series 24 principal actually works.
Rule 2210 requires retail communications be reviewed and approved by a registered principal (typically Series 24) before use, with specific categories (institutional comms, correspondence, retail comms) each carrying their own review burden. The principal's review queue is where most BDs run on email plus a spreadsheet because the CRM does not model the workflow. Strkr routes outbound retail communications to the designated principal with keyword flags (performance claims, guarantees, testimonials), approval or send-back actions, and the Rule 2210 audit trail retained alongside the content.
SEC Rule 17a-4(f) storage
WORM-equivalent or the 2022 audit-trail alternative.
SEC Rule 17a-4(f) requires electronic records be preserved in a non-rewriteable, non-erasable format (WORM) or (post the November 2022 amendments) an electronic recordkeeping system with specific audit-trail requirements including serialization, tamper-evident records, and third-party time stamping. Strkr implements the 2022 audit-trail alternative with cryptographic hash chains, serialized record versioning, and third-party time stamping; firms that prefer the traditional WORM pattern can integrate with a certified third-party WORM provider like Smarsh Enterprise Archive or Global Relay Archive.
FINRA Rule 3110 supervision
The written procedures that an exam can actually follow.
Rule 3110 requires each member firm have written supervisory procedures (WSPs) covering all registered activity, with evidence of ongoing supervision at the branch and firm level. The gap most BDs have is not the WSP document; it is the day-to-day evidence that supervision happened on the schedule the WSP describes. Strkr models supervisory tasks (daily review of correspondence, periodic review of accounts, branch audit prep) as scheduled records with completion evidence and principal sign-off, so the Rule 3110 evidence trail is a report instead of a reconstruction project.
Email surveillance separation
Smarsh handles the archive, your CRM handles the workflow.
Most BDs run email surveillance through Smarsh, Global Relay, Proofpoint, or Mimecast for the Rule 17a-4 archive. The CRM typically stays separate, which creates the reconciliation problem at exam time: the archive has the emails, the CRM has the client interactions, and matching the two is manual. Strkr integrates with Smarsh and Global Relay via their journaling API so outbound CRM emails push to the surveillance archive with the CRM record ID preserved. The exam-ready view ties the surveillance evidence back to the client interaction without a two-sided reconciliation.
Reg BI care obligation evidence
The 2020 rule reshaped what a recommendation record looks like.
Regulation Best Interest (Reg BI, effective June 2020) requires BDs document the care obligation on retail recommendations: reasonable basis, customer-specific suitability, and consideration of reasonably available alternatives. The evidence has to live somewhere. Strkr models the Reg BI care obligation as a required-field capture on recommendation records with the alternatives considered, the suitability basis, and the customer disclosure delivered. The 2024 Regulatory Priorities letter put Reg BI implementation review back in exam focus; most BDs are tightening this evidence chain and the CRM is where it lands.
What a FINRA-compliant CRM should actually do
The broker-dealer primitives, on a modern CRM surface.
Compliance capability is table stakes; the real question is whether the Series 24 principal, the CCO, and the registered rep can all do their actual jobs on the same tool. The cards below are what ships on the Strkr BD tier, each tied to a specific FINRA or SEC obligation.
Rule 4511 retention engine
Six-year clock applied automatically by record class.
Every record created in Strkr gets classified at creation (customer communication, account record, trade blotter, supervisory record, advertising, correspondence) with the Rule 4511 retention clock applied automatically. The 2-year immediate-access partition stays on hot storage; years 3 through 6 move to warm storage with the same access path. The retention policy is a report the CCO runs quarterly, with any approaching-end records flagged for the review the regulator expects.
Rule 2210 content review workflow
Pre-send principal review with keyword flags.
Outbound retail communications route to the designated Series 24 principal with keyword flags (performance claims, guarantees, superlatives, testimonial language). The principal approves, sends back for revision, or escalates to the CCO. The approval record retains with the communication for the Rule 4511 period. Correspondence vs retail-communication classification applies the right review path per Rule 2210's definitions. The principal's queue is a dashboard, not an inbox folder.
17a-4(f) audit-trail alternative
Cryptographic hash chains and third-party time stamping.
The November 2022 amendments to Rule 17a-4(f) permit an audit-trail alternative to WORM-equivalent storage. Strkr implements the alternative with serialized record versioning, tamper-evident cryptographic hash chains, and third-party time stamping that satisfies the regulatory requirements. For firms that prefer the historical WORM pattern, Strkr pushes journaled records to a certified third-party WORM provider via native integration.
Rule 3110 supervisory tasks
The daily and periodic reviews on the schedule.
The firm's written supervisory procedures translate into scheduled Strkr tasks: daily correspondence review, periodic account review, branch audit prep, OSJ (Office of Supervisory Jurisdiction) reviews, principal designation reviews. Each task carries the WSP citation, the review criteria, and the principal sign-off capture. The Rule 3110 evidence trail is a report the exam team can pull with the date range they request.
Reg BI care obligation capture
Reasonable basis plus alternatives considered.
Recommendation records capture the Reg BI care obligation elements: reasonable basis for the recommendation, customer-specific suitability analysis, reasonably available alternatives considered, and the retail disclosure delivered. The field capture happens at recommendation time rather than reconstructed after exam notice. For BDs updating Reg BI implementation after the 2024 Regulatory Priorities letter, this is typically the first evidence gap to close.
Smarsh and Global Relay journaling
Outbound email pushed to surveillance archive natively.
Strkr pushes outbound CRM email to Smarsh Enterprise Archive, Global Relay Archive, Mimecast, or Proofpoint via their journaling API, with the CRM record ID preserved in the archive metadata. The archive-to-CRM reconciliation becomes a joined report rather than a two-sided manual match. Firms that have standardized on Smarsh for Rule 17a-4 archiving keep that archive as the system of record and let Strkr handle the CRM-native workflow with the archive linkage intact.
Branch and OSJ hierarchy
The office structure the Form BR filing describes.
Rule 3110 and the Form BR filing describe each branch office and OSJ designation. Strkr models the office hierarchy as a first-class record: branch, OSJ, home office, with registered rep assignment, principal designation, and supervisory relationship. The supervisory review flows route up the hierarchy, which is the shape most CRMs do not model and most BDs end up configuring with tags and workarounds.
Books-and-records export
The exam-ready export in the format the regulator wants.
FINRA exam requests typically arrive as a request for records over a specific date range in a specific format (customer communications, trade blotters, supervisory records). Strkr's books-and-records export runs the request against the audit log with the retention metadata preserved, outputs in CSV, structured JSON, or EDRM-compatible format, and includes the chain-of-custody artifact the regulator typically requests. Exam response time compresses from weeks to days.
Dual-registration handling
RIA and BD rules applied by hat.
A dually-registered advisor wears two hats and the rules differ (SEC Rule 204-2 for RIA activity vs Rule 4511 for BD activity). Strkr tags each client interaction with the hat worn and applies the right retention clock and the right review workflow per activity type. The dually-registered firm stops configuring one record class as both; the record carries its own regulatory classification and the audit evidence is clean.
The specific FINRA rules this covers
Citation-level mapping for the CCO review.
When the CCO reviews a CRM for broker-dealer suitability, the question is whether the specific FINRA and SEC rules get handled with the specific evidence a regulator wants. The six items below map the rule citation to the Strkr capability. This is the detail the compliance evaluation runs on.
FINRA Rule 4511
Books-and-records retention, 6 years.
Rule 4511 incorporates SEC Rule 17a-3 (records to be made) and Rule 17a-4 (preservation period). Strkr's record classification applies the 6-year retention clock at creation with the 2-year immediate-access requirement handled by hot-storage partitioning. The Rule 4511 Supplementary Material 4511.01 category list is the taxonomy Strkr classifies against so the exam response ties records to the specific rule reference.
FINRA Rule 2210
Communications with the public and principal review.
Rule 2210(b) sets the standards for retail communications, correspondence, and institutional communications. Rule 2210(b)(1) requires principal pre-approval for retail communications. Strkr's content-review workflow applies the classification at send time, routes to the designated Series 24 principal, retains the approval evidence, and preserves the content with Rule 2210's filing requirements for applicable categories (initial 10-day filing for new BDs, specific product filings for certain mutual-fund and variable-insurance communications).
SEC Rule 17a-4(f)
Electronic recordkeeping format and preservation.
Rule 17a-4(f) sets the requirements for electronic record preservation. The November 2022 amendments permit the audit-trail alternative with specific requirements: serialization, time stamping by a third party, download capability, and the ability to produce records in a format regulators can read. Strkr's implementation of the audit-trail alternative meets each of these requirements, and the compliance documentation (the written notice to the Designated Examining Authority, the required undertakings) is available for firms that elect this path.
FINRA Rule 3110
Supervision and the written supervisory procedures.
Rule 3110 requires written supervisory procedures reasonably designed to achieve compliance with applicable rules, with evidence of supervisory activity at the branch and firm level. Strkr translates the WSP document into scheduled supervisory tasks with completion evidence, principal sign-off capture, and the audit trail retained for the Rule 4511 period. The 3110(c) branch inspection requirements run as recurring tasks with the inspection record retained.
Reg BI (Rule 15l-1)
Best interest obligation on retail recommendations.
Regulation Best Interest requires BDs act in the retail customer's best interest at the time of a recommendation, with four component obligations: Disclosure, Care, Conflict, and Compliance. The Care Obligation is where most BDs land their evidence gap. Strkr's recommendation record captures reasonable basis, customer-specific suitability, and reasonably available alternatives considered as required fields. The 2024 Regulatory Priorities letter kept Reg BI in exam focus, so this evidence chain matters.
Form CRS delivery evidence
The relationship summary delivered at account open.
Form CRS (Customer Relationship Summary) must be delivered to retail customers at or before specific trigger events (account open, recommendation of rollover, new account for existing customer). Strkr tracks Form CRS delivery with the version delivered, the delivery date, the delivery method, and the trigger event. The 2024 Priorities letter flagged Form CRS delivery as an exam focus area for several BDs, so having the evidence as a report rather than a scramble through old emails matters.
What BD compliance teams compare on
The honest evaluation checklist from working CCOs.
FINRA-compliance CRM evaluations are not won on feature count; they are won on whether the audit evidence pulls cleanly in an exam. The six criteria below came from conversations with CCOs at BDs ranging from 40 to 400 reps, each of whom has worked at least one exam cycle in the last 24 months.
Exam-response time
From FINRA request letter to records delivered.
Strkr: typically 2 to 5 days for a standard records request, longer for the heavier custom-report requests. Redtail: capable with the Imaging add-on and some manual reconciliation. Wealthbox: lighter BD compliance posture, works for the smaller BD footprint. Salesforce Financial Services Cloud: capable with configuration and typically a dedicated admin. The exam-response time compounds across annual exams, cycle exams, and sweep exams, which is why CCOs treat this as a primary selection criterion.
Principal review workflow depth
Can the Series 24 principal work the queue in-product.
Strkr: full in-product review queue with keyword flags, approval or send-back actions, escalation to CCO, retention of the approval evidence. Redtail: workflow module with Rule 2210 templates. Wealthbox: lighter principal-review workflow, often paired with a surveillance tool. Smarsh Supervision: dedicated surveillance workflow. For BDs with high communication volume, the pre-send review workflow is where the Series 24 principal spends most of their day.
Surveillance archive integration
How well the archive and the CRM stay in sync.
Strkr: native journaling integration with Smarsh, Global Relay, Mimecast, Proofpoint, with the CRM record ID preserved in archive metadata. Redtail: integrates with the common archives. Wealthbox: integrates. The question is not whether integration exists; it is whether the archive-to-CRM reconciliation becomes a joined report. Strkr's version preserves the record ID across the boundary so the exam-ready export is single-sourced.
Supervisory hierarchy modeling
Does the CRM understand the branch and OSJ structure.
Strkr: branch and OSJ as first-class records with registered rep assignment, principal designation, and supervisory review routing up the hierarchy. Redtail: capable with configuration. Wealthbox: lighter hierarchy support, works for firms with a flat structure. Salesforce FSC: deep via custom objects. For BDs with 10-plus OSJs across multiple states, the hierarchy modeling is the shape most CRMs force into a tag workaround.
Reg BI care obligation evidence
Does the recommendation record capture the required fields.
Strkr: required-field capture on recommendation records for reasonable basis, customer-specific suitability, and reasonably available alternatives. Redtail: configurable via custom fields. Wealthbox: via custom fields. Salesforce FSC: via custom objects and configuration. The 2024 Priorities letter put Reg BI implementation review back in exam focus, so having this as a first-class capture rather than a configurable field matters when the exam request lands.
Three-year TCO
What this actually costs by year three.
Strkr: flat per seat with the full BD tier included, no surveillance SKU gate, no supervisory module upsell. Redtail: license per database with 15 to 25 percent annual uplifts plus Imaging and other add-ons at the BD tier. Wealthbox: per seat, more stable. Salesforce FSC: typically runs 3 to 5x year one by year three with Signature Success and admin cost. For a 50-rep BD, the three-year TCO delta can run $150,000 to $400,000 depending on the stack.
Head-to-head
Strkr vs Redtail CRM for a mid-sized broker-dealer specifically.
Redtail is the long-standing default at mid-sized broker-dealers and dually-registered firms, with a mature compliance posture that broadly clears BD approved-vendor review. Wealthbox is the common comparison for firms that want modern UX at the lighter end. Here is the honest head-to-head against Redtail for a 50-to-150-rep BD.
Feature
Strkr
Redtail CRM
Pricing basis
Flat per seat with full BD tier on every paid plan
Per database with annual uplifts, Imaging and other add-ons
Rule 4511 books-and-records retention
Six-year clock applied automatically by record class
Mature retention via Imaging and configuration
Rule 2210 pre-send principal review
Native workflow with keyword flags and approval evidence
Workflow module with Rule 2210 templates
SEC Rule 17a-4(f) storage
Audit-trail alternative or certified third-party WORM integration
Mature broker-dealer storage posture
Rule 3110 supervisory tasks
Scheduled WSP-driven tasks with principal sign-off
Available via workflow configuration
Smarsh / Global Relay journaling
Native integration with record ID preserved in archive
Supported via integrations
Reg BI care obligation capture
Required-field capture on recommendation records
Via custom-field configuration
Branch and OSJ hierarchy
First-class record with routing up the hierarchy
Supported with configuration
UX / interface
Modern UX comparable to HubSpot or Attio
Classic UX showing its 2010 lineage
Books-and-records export format
CSV, structured JSON, EDRM with chain-of-custody artifact
Export via Imaging with manual reconciliation
How teams use Strkr
How broker-dealers run Strkr today.
The through-line across BD customers: get Rule 4511 retention, Rule 2210 review, Rule 3110 supervision, and the surveillance archive integration on one tool and stop reconciling across three vendors in an exam. The playbooks below are motions live on broker-dealer accounts right now.
Mid-sized independent BD, 85 reps
Exam response compressed from 3 weeks to 4 days.
An 85-rep independent BD running Smarsh for email archive moved their CRM-side records off Redtail and onto Strkr over 14 weeks. The first FINRA cycle exam under the new stack hit at month 9, with a records request covering 18 months of customer communications and the full set of supervisory evidence. The exam-response package pulled from Strkr with the Smarsh integration providing the parallel archive evidence; delivery landed in 4 business days versus the 3-week average under the prior stack. The exam closed without finding.
Dually-registered RIA/BD
RIA and BD retention clocks running correctly in parallel.
A dually-registered firm (RIA for roughly 60 percent of client assets, BD for the remainder) ran into the classic retention-reconciliation problem on their prior CRM: Rule 204-2 for RIA activity carries a 5-year clock, Rule 4511 for BD activity carries 6 years. Mixing the two on the same record classification created audit gaps. Strkr's hat-tagging per interaction applied the right clock automatically, and the CCO's quarterly retention review runs as a report split by registration type.
OSJ principal workload
Content review queue cleared from 2-day to 4-hour average.
A Series 24 principal at an OSJ covering 22 registered reps had been working the Rule 2210 pre-review queue as an inbox pattern, with 2-day average clearing time and reps frequently waiting for approval before sending. Strkr's in-product review queue with keyword flags cut the per-review time from roughly 8 minutes to 3 minutes, and the average queue-clearing time dropped to 4 hours. Reps' sent-communication-per-week metric rose roughly 30 percent, which materially helped the firm's communication cadence with retail customers.
Reg BI implementation review
Care obligation evidence tightened after 2024 Priorities letter.
After FINRA's 2024 Regulatory Priorities letter put Reg BI implementation review back in exam focus, a 120-rep BD audited their recommendation records and found roughly 23 percent did not have complete care-obligation evidence (specifically, the reasonably available alternatives field was often blank). The firm moved recommendation capture to Strkr's required-field flow and the completeness metric reached 100 percent within the first full quarter. The next cycle exam cleared the Reg BI focus area without finding.
Rule 3110 branch inspection cycle
The annual branch inspection run as scheduled tasks with sign-off.
A 40-rep BD with 7 branches across 4 states had been running the Rule 3110 branch inspection on a spreadsheet calendar, with the inspection evidence captured in a shared drive. Strkr translated the WSP branch-inspection section into scheduled tasks per branch with the inspection criteria, the on-site visit record, the principal sign-off capture, and the inspection report retained on the branch record. The exam evidence for 3110(c) came together as a report rather than a weekend of file-collection work.
A FINRA-compliant CRM that clears exam response in days, not weeks.
Start a 14-day trial with the broker-dealer tier enabled: Rule 4511 retention, Rule 2210 content review, SEC Rule 17a-4(f) audit-trail alternative, Rule 3110 supervisory tasks, Reg BI care obligation capture, Smarsh and Global Relay journaling. Migrate from Redtail, Wealthbox, Junxure, or Salesforce Financial Services Cloud with the retention chain preserved.
Is Strkr approved by any broker-dealers as a vendor?
Strkr's broker-dealer tier is in the vendor-approval process at several BDs today. The vendor-approval package covers the specific FINRA and SEC rule mappings, the compliance posture documentation, SOC 2 Type II status (in progress), HIPAA (with BAA where applicable), and the audit-evidence samples the BD compliance team typically reviews. For firms where vendor approval is a gating item, we can engage the BD's compliance team on the review process; most reviews take 30 to 90 days depending on the BD's process. Firms running on the Strkr RIA tier with no BD affiliation do not need the vendor approval and are live today.
How does Strkr handle SEC Rule 17a-4(f) WORM-equivalent storage?
The November 2022 amendments to SEC Rule 17a-4(f) permit an audit-trail alternative to WORM-equivalent storage, with specific requirements including serialized record versioning, tamper-evident records, third-party time stamping, and the ability to produce records in a regulator-readable format. Strkr implements the audit-trail alternative with cryptographic hash chains per record, serialized versioning, and third-party time stamping that satisfies the regulatory requirements. For firms that prefer the traditional WORM-equivalent storage pattern, Strkr integrates with certified third-party WORM providers via native journaling. The written notice to the Designated Examining Authority and the required undertakings are available for firms electing the audit-trail path.
What is the integration with Smarsh and Global Relay for email surveillance?
Strkr pushes outbound CRM email to Smarsh Enterprise Archive, Global Relay Archive, Mimecast, and Proofpoint via their journaling APIs. The archive metadata preserves the Strkr record ID, which means the archive-to-CRM reconciliation is a joined report rather than a two-sided manual match at exam time. For BDs that have standardized on one of these archives as the Rule 17a-4 system of record (which is the common pattern), the archive stays authoritative and Strkr handles the CRM-native workflow with the archive linkage intact. Inbound email can also be journaled where the firm captures customer-initiated communications as part of the retention policy.
How does the Rule 2210 content-review workflow work in practice?
When a registered rep drafts an outbound retail communication, Strkr classifies it as retail communication, correspondence, or institutional communication per the Rule 2210 definitions. Retail communications route to the designated Series 24 principal with keyword flags on performance claims, guarantees, superlatives, and testimonial language. The principal reviews in-product, approves or sends back for revision, or escalates to the CCO. The approval record retains with the communication for the Rule 4511 period. Correspondence (one-to-one unsolicited) applies the lighter post-use review path. Rule 2210 filing requirements (initial 10-day filing for new BDs, specific product communications) fire as separate tasks where applicable.
What is the migration path from Redtail or a Salesforce FSC configuration?
Strkr's wealth-CRM migration tool pulls customer records, account mappings, communication history, document attachments, workflow logic, custom fields, and the retention metadata from Redtail (via API) and Salesforce Financial Services Cloud (via its API and configuration export). The migration preserves the Rule 4511 retention chain so the compliance record is unbroken across the switch. For BDs on Redtail with the Imaging add-on, Strkr's record-import process preserves the imaging history. Migrations for BDs run 12 to 20 weeks in practice because the vendor-approval review runs in parallel with the technical migration, and the compliance team typically wants a 4-to-6-week parallel-running period before cutover.
What size broker-dealer is Strkr not a good fit for?
The largest end of the BD sector (wirehouses, large regionals with 1,000-plus reps, firms with deep broker-dealer-specific infrastructure on Salesforce Financial Services Cloud or in-house custom platforms) typically stays on the existing stack because the switching cost outweighs the compliance-posture gain in year one. For BDs below roughly 500 reps, Strkr is competitive on both the compliance posture and the three-year TCO. For firms with specific vendor-approval requirements at their clearing BD, Strkr's vendor-approval timeline is a specific question to raise early in the evaluation.
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