FINRA Misleading Communications and Content Standards

To meet the finra misleading communications and content standards requirement, you must prevent any retail communication or correspondence from containing untrue material statements, misleading claims, or omitted qualifications, and you must be able to substantiate every claim before it is used. Operationally, this means a documented review-and-approval workflow, content standards checklists, and retained evidence that each item was approved and supported. (FINRA Rule 2210)

Key takeaways:

• Treat every customer-facing claim as “audit-ready”: substantiation, balanced presentation, and clear risk disclosures. (FINRA Rule 2210)
• Build supervision into the lifecycle: intake, principal review, approval, publication, monitoring, and recordkeeping. (FINRA Rule 2210) (FINRA Rule 3110)
• Examiners expect artifacts, not explanations: final content, versions, approvals, and support for performance/benefit statements. (FINRA Rule 2210)

“Misleading communications” findings rarely come from exotic edge cases. They come from normal marketing pressure: simplified claims, performance soundbites, social posts, pitch decks, and product pages that drift away from what the firm can prove. FINRA’s communications standards require that your communications with the public be fair, balanced, and not misleading, and that you do not omit material facts or qualifications needed for a sound basis to evaluate what you’re saying. (FINRA Rule 2210)

For a CCO or GRC lead, the fastest path to compliance is to operationalize this requirement as a content governance system: define what counts as a “communication,” require pre-use review where mandated, standardize what “substantiation” looks like, and retain evidence so supervision is provable. Your written supervisory procedures (WSPs) should tie the content rules to a workflow, name accountable reviewers, and specify how exceptions are handled. That supervision expectation sits alongside your broader supervisory obligations. (FINRA Rule 3110)

This page gives requirement-level implementation guidance you can put into production quickly: who is in scope, what controls to implement, what to retain, how to answer exam questions, and common mistakes that trigger findings.

Regulatory text

Requirement (excerpt): “No member may make any retail communication or correspondence that contains any untrue statement of a material fact, or is otherwise false or misleading. Communications must provide a sound basis for evaluating the facts and must not omit material facts or qualifications.” (FINRA Rule 2210)

Operator interpretation:
You must run a process that (1) blocks false or misleading content, (2) forces completeness and balance (risks, limitations, assumptions), and (3) creates an audit trail showing who approved the communication and what evidence supports the claims. “Sound basis” is the practical test: a reasonable customer should be able to evaluate the message without being steered by omissions or selective framing. (FINRA Rule 2210)

Plain-English interpretation (what FINRA expects in practice)

Implement standards so that any communication:

• Says what is true and provable: no claims you can’t substantiate with records you can produce quickly. (FINRA Rule 2210)
• Is not misleading by omission: if a claim needs qualifiers, assumptions, or limitations to be understood, include them where the claim appears. (FINRA Rule 2210)
• Is fair and balanced: benefits, features, and upside statements should not drown out risk, costs, constraints, or conditions. (FINRA Rule 2210)

Tie this to supervision: your firm should be able to show WSPs, reviewer qualifications, review evidence, and ongoing oversight. (FINRA Rule 3110)

Who it applies to (entity and operational context)

In-scope entities

• FINRA member broker-dealers creating or distributing communications with the public. (FINRA Rule 2210)

In-scope content types (operationally) Treat the following as in scope for your content standards and supervisory controls (classify formally in your WSPs):

• Website pages, product/strategy pages, FAQs
• Retail emails and messages (“correspondence”)
• Social media posts and paid ads
• Pitch decks, one-pagers, brochures, client letters
• Seminar/webinar invitations and scripts
• Performance illustrations, projections, calculators, and testimonials if used

Even if a team argues something is “just marketing,” you still need to control it if it can reach retail investors or influences them. Apply the same standards across channels; the control differences should be about review routing and speed, not about whether the rule applies. (FINRA Rule 2210)

What you actually need to do (step-by-step)

1) Define your communication inventory and ownership model

Create an inventory (spreadsheet or system) of content “families” and assign owners:

• Channel (web, email, social, deck)
• Audience (retail vs. institutional vs. internal)
• Business owner (Marketing, Product, IR)
• Compliance reviewer (named principal or designee per WSP)
• Required substantiation types (performance, fees, risks)

Deliverable: Communications Inventory + RACI mapped into WSPs. (FINRA Rule 3110)

2) Write content standards that are testable

Put into your WSPs a checklist with pass/fail criteria tied to the rule’s language. Examples of testable standards:

• Every material claim has a “support tag” (link to source data, approved disclosure, or legal/compliance memo). (FINRA Rule 2210)
• Risk disclosures appear proximate to the related benefit claim (same page/slide/section). (FINRA Rule 2210)
• No absolute/guaranteed language unless the firm can demonstrate it is accurate and not misleading in context. (FINRA Rule 2210)
• Any comparison (“lower fees,” “better execution,” “outperforms”) requires defined basis, timeframe/assumptions, and supporting evidence. (FINRA Rule 2210)

Deliverable: FINRA 2210 Content Standards Checklist embedded in your ticket/workflow.

3) Implement a pre-use review and approval workflow

Build a workflow that enforces:

• Intake: submit draft + audience + channel + intended use dates + claim substantiation attachments.
• Compliance/principal review: comment, require edits, approve or reject, and record decision.
• Lock and publish: only approved versions can be posted/sent; prevent “last-minute” edits outside the workflow.
• Expedite lane: for low-risk updates (typos, formatting) with defined criteria and documentation.

Your WSPs should define who can approve what, and how approvals are evidenced. (FINRA Rule 2210) (FINRA Rule 3110)

Deliverable: Documented pre-use approval control (system workflow or controlled email + repository, but it must be auditable).

4) Operationalize substantiation (“prove it” package)

Create a standard “substantiation packet” template that content creators must attach when a communication includes claims about:

• Performance or results
• Costs/fees
• Risk reduction
• Product features and limitations
• Service levels, availability, or coverage

Minimum fields:

• Claim text (verbatim)
• Source of truth (dataset, calculation, policy, contract, research note)
• Owner of the source
• Date validated
• Expiration/review date (so support doesn’t go stale)

This turns “substantiation” from debate into a repeatable artifact. (FINRA Rule 2210)

5) Add post-publication controls (monitoring and change control)

Pre-use review won’t catch everything if content changes after approval or if associated pages change.

• Monitor key channels for drift (web updates, new landing pages, social posts).
• Require change tickets for edits to approved content.
• Periodically sample communications and re-check substantiation and disclosure completeness.

Supervision means ongoing oversight, not a one-time gate. (FINRA Rule 3110)

6) Train the people who create risk

Train to the actual failure modes:

• What counts as a “material fact”
• How omissions create misleading impressions
• How to write balanced risk disclosures that match the claim
• How to use the substantiation packet

Keep training role-based: marketing writers need different examples than registered reps. (FINRA Rule 3110)

Required evidence and artifacts to retain

Maintain an audit-ready package per communication (or campaign):

1. Final approved communication (PDF/screenshot/export) and distribution channel
2. Version history and redlines (or change log)
3. Approval record (who approved, role, date/time, conditions)
4. Substantiation packet for each material claim (source links/files)
5. Required disclosures/risk language that appeared in the final version
6. Exception approvals (if any) with rationale and compensating controls
7. Training completion records for relevant staff (supervision support) (FINRA Rule 3110)

FINRA’s standard here is practical: can you produce the “what, who, when, and why” for a given public statement. (FINRA Rule 2210)

Common exam/audit questions and hangups

Prepare crisp answers and artifacts for:

• “Show me your WSPs for communications review and who is authorized to approve.” (FINRA Rule 3110)
• “Provide a sample of retail communications from the last period and the approval evidence.” (FINRA Rule 2210)
• “How do you substantiate performance, comparisons, or cost claims?” (FINRA Rule 2210)
• “How do you ensure disclosures are not buried or separated from the claim?” (FINRA Rule 2210)
• “What’s your process for social media and web updates after approval?” (FINRA Rule 3110)
• “How do you prevent reps from using unapproved decks or one-off emails?” (FINRA Rule 3110)

Frequent implementation mistakes (and how to avoid them)

1. Treating substantiation as optional
   Fix: require a substantiation packet for any material claim and block review until provided. (FINRA Rule 2210)

2. Approving drafts but not controlling the published version
   Fix: publish only from a controlled repository; require screenshots/exports of what actually went live. (FINRA Rule 2210)

3. Separating risk disclosures from the claim
   Fix: enforce “proximity rules” in templates (same slide/section) and add a checklist item for proximity. (FINRA Rule 2210)

4. Letting “informal” channels bypass controls (social, event scripts, ad copy variants)
   Fix: define communication types broadly in WSPs, route them through the same approval system, and pre-approve reusable language blocks. (FINRA Rule 2210) (FINRA Rule 3110)

5. No supervision story for correspondence
   Fix: document how you supervise outbound correspondence patterns (templates, monitoring, sampling, escalation). (FINRA Rule 3110)

Enforcement context and risk implications

Your primary risk is that routine marketing content becomes a supervisory finding because the firm cannot prove (a) the claim was true and not misleading, and (b) review/approval occurred with documented oversight. FINRA frames this as a communications standard and a supervision problem, so gaps often touch both communications content rules and supervisory controls. (FINRA Rule 2210) (FINRA Rule 3110)

Practical execution plan (30/60/90-day)

You asked for speed. Use phases, and ship controls in usable increments.

First 30 days: Stabilize and stop uncontrolled publishing

• Publish a temporary rule: “No public claim without a substantiation packet and recorded approval.” (FINRA Rule 2210)
• Stand up a single intake channel (ticketing queue or mailbox) and a controlled repository for final versions.
• Draft the content standards checklist and a basic substantiation packet template.
• Identify approvers (principals) and document interim WSP addendum covering: intake, approval evidence, and exception handling. (FINRA Rule 3110)

Days 31–60: Formalize WSPs and tighten workflows

• Finalize WSP language for communications classification, review routing, and post-publication changes. (FINRA Rule 3110)
• Build standard disclosure libraries and pre-approved language blocks for common products/risks.
• Train marketing, product, and reps on “material claim + substantiation” and “no omission” drafting patterns. (FINRA Rule 3110)
• Start sampling live content for drift and document remediation.

Days 61–90: Scale and measure

• Expand inventory coverage to all channels and affiliates/branches that publish or message.
• Add monitoring for web/social changes and require change tickets for edits to approved content. (FINRA Rule 3110)
• Run a mock exam: pull a sample set of communications and produce the full evidence package within a business day.
• If you use Daydream, configure it as the system of record for communications intake, approvals, and substantiation attachments so audits become retrieval work, not archaeology.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does this apply only to glossy advertisements, or also to routine emails and social posts?

It applies to retail communications and correspondence that reach the public, including routine channels if they contain claims or recommendations. Set your WSP scope broadly so informal channels still follow the same “no misleading statements or omissions” standard. (FINRA Rule 2210)

What does “substantiation” mean operationally?

It means you can produce concrete support for each material claim, tied to the exact words used, and show it was reviewed before use. A substantiation packet with sources, calculations, owner, and validation date makes this repeatable. (FINRA Rule 2210)

If a statement is technically true, can it still be misleading?

Yes. A true statement can be misleading if it omits material qualifications or context needed for a sound basis to evaluate the facts. Your review checklist should test for omitted assumptions, limitations, and risk disclosures near the claim. (FINRA Rule 2210)

How do we control last-minute edits made by marketing or a rep right before posting?

Treat publication as a controlled step: only publish from approved files in a controlled repository, and require a new approval for any text changes. Retain evidence of what actually went live (export/screenshot) tied to the approval record. (FINRA Rule 2210)

What’s the minimum we need in WSPs to satisfy supervision expectations?

Document who reviews what, how the review is evidenced, how exceptions work, and how you supervise after publication (monitoring/sampling and change control). The point is to make supervision provable and repeatable. (FINRA Rule 3110)

We have multiple products and fast-moving campaigns. How do we avoid bottlenecks without taking on compliance risk?

Pre-approve modular language blocks (risks, fees, standard claims) and require teams to assemble communications from those blocks, with review focused on new claims and context. Keep an expedite lane for low-risk changes with clear criteria and documentation. (FINRA Rule 2210) (FINRA Rule 3110)