Municipal Advisor Recordkeeping: MSRB Rules G-8 and G-9 and SEC Rule 15Ba1-8

A municipal advisor must keep the books and records that show what it recommended to a municipal client and on what basis.

Three rules fix the list: SEC Rule 15Ba1-8 requires a core set of books and records, MSRB Rule G-8(h) adds records created under specific MSRB rules, and MSRB Rule G-9 sets how long each category is preserved.

For the registration duties and the fiduciary standard that govern advisory conduct, see what a municipal advisor does; this page stays on the records themselves.

What records must a municipal advisor make under SEC Rule 15Ba1-8?

SEC Rule 15Ba1-8 requires a municipal advisor to make and keep a defined set of books and records relating to its municipal advisory activities, and the recommendation file sits at the center: the rule requires "a copy of any document created by the municipal advisor that was material to making a recommendation to a municipal entity or obligated person or that memorializes the basis for that recommendation."

The SEC adopted Rules 15Ba1-1 through 15Ba1-8, together with Rule 15Bc4-1 and Forms MA, MA-I, MA-W and MA-NR, on September 20, 2013, in Release No. 34-70462, which lists an effective date of January 13, 2014.

The final rules were effective January 13, 2014, but the SEC stayed them until July 1, 2014, so the framework, including the recordkeeping rule, took effect July 1, 2014 after a temporary stay.

The record rule carves out items predating July 1, 2014.

These are the advisor's own regulatory records: they are not the issuer's tax-compliance file, which runs on a different clock described later on this page.

What does MSRB Rule G-8 add?

MSRB Rule G-8(h) requires a municipal advisor to keep everything Rule 15Ba1-8 requires, plus records created under specific MSRB rules.

• Gift records under the MSRB gifts rule and political contribution records under the MSRB rule on political contributions.
• "A copy of any document created by a municipal advisor that was material to its review of a recommendation by another party or that memorializes the basis for any determination as to suitability," the record tied to the MSRB's standards-of-conduct rule for municipal advisors.
• Supervisory procedures and annual certification records under the MSRB supervision rule.
• Written client complaints.
• Training and continuing education records under the MSRB professional qualification rule.
• Records of advertisements and of the compensation paid for statements of a person's or entity's experience concerning the municipal advisor, required by the MSRB advertising rule.
• And records required under a further MSRB rule.

Our guide to the MSRB's standards-of-conduct rule covers that rule itself.

What advertising records must a municipal advisor keep?

The MSRB's advertising rule for municipal advisors requires an advisor to keep a separate file of all of its advertisements and of any compensation paid for "a statement of a person's or entity's experience concerning the municipal advisor," which is the rule's own definition of the statements it covers.

MSRB Rule G-8(h)(viii) carries the matching entries: a record of all advertisements required by the advertising rule and a record of the compensation paid for those statements.

The SEC approved the original advertising rule in Release No. 34-83177 on May 7, 2018, and the effective date for municipal advisor compliance was August 23, 2019.

How long must a municipal advisor keep its records?

MSRB Rule G-9 says "every municipal advisor shall preserve the books and records described in Rule G-8(h) for a period of not less than five years."

The federal baseline comes first: Rule 15Ba1-8(b)(1) requires records to be "maintained and preserved for a period of not less than five years, the first two years in an easily accessible place."

Three categories run longer: political contribution records and written client complaints are kept for at least six years, and under MSRB Rule G-9(h)(ii) supervisory and chief compliance officer designation records are kept for the period of designation plus at least six years after any change.

Electronic storage is permitted: Rule 15Ba1-8(d) allows records to be kept electronically if they are indexed, a duplicate copy is maintained and access controls apply, and MSRB Rule G-9(k) deems electronic storage that complies with 15Ba1-8(d) to be compliant.

If an advisor leaves the business, Rule 15Ba1-8(c) requires it to arrange preservation of the required records and to notify the SEC.

For an issuer, the practical point is that the advisor's minimum periods are stated in years, while the issuer's own retention runs on the bonds' schedule, as the next section describes.

How does advisor recordkeeping protect issuers?

The advisor's file is the record of what was recommended and on what basis, which is what an issuer, its bond counsel or a later reviewer would otherwise have to reconstruct; the bid-level detail sits in the issuer's own file, described below.

mGIC closes each engagement by delivering a compliance file covering its recommendations, the documents exchanged and the communications, organized around MSRB Rules G-8 and G-9 and SEC Rule 15Ba1-8 recordkeeping, and the file is reviewed by a nationally recognized compliance agent.

The issuer keeps its own records on the bonds' schedule: to use the bidding safe harbor, the issuer retains specified records with the bond documents until 3 years after the last outstanding bond is redeemed, under Treasury Regulation §1.148-5(d)(6)(iii)(E).

Treasury Regulation §1.148-5(d)(6)(iii)(E)(1)-(5) points to:

• the contract or purchase agreement;
• the receipt for the amount paid, with any administrative costs, and the provider certification;
• each bid's submitter, time, date and result;
• the bid solicitation form, with an explanation of any deviations; and
• for non-GIC purchases, the cost of the most efficient SLGS portfolio when bids were due.

Those bid records are produced in the solicitation itself: when mGIC serves as Bidding Agent, it prepares the bid specifications, solicits qualified providers, manages questions and receives and compares the bids on rate and non-rate terms, and the record of each bid's submitter, time, date and result comes out of that work.

The provider certification in that list is one of the closing deliverables described in our guide to certifications.

On the tax side, the IRS says material records for a tax-exempt issue should generally be kept for as long as the bonds are outstanding, plus 3 years after the final redemption date, and its list of material records includes documentation of investments, such as securities trades, SLGS subscriptions, yield calculations for each investment class, investment income, GICs and rebate calculations.

GFOA's best practice points the same direction: it recommends that the drawdown of proceeds be planned and recorded, that the investment duration be no longer than the expected drawdown schedule, and it describes the record retention period as typically the life of the bonds plus three years.

Where the two clocks meet is at closing: the advisor's file under Rules G-8 and G-9 documents what was recommended and why, while the issuer's file under the arbitrage rules keeps the bid records and the tax conclusions with the bond documents.

Costs are recorded too, and the tax rules treat them narrowly: qualified administrative costs on nonpurpose investments are taken into account as adjustments to payments and receipts, and Treasury Regulation §1.148-5(e)(2)(i) limits them to reasonable, direct administrative costs such as separately stated brokerage or selling commissions, excluding legal and accounting fees, recordkeeping, custody and similar costs.

The regulation adds a reasonableness test: costs are generally not reasonable unless they are comparable to what would be charged on a comparable investment bought with non-bond money.

How the issuer assembles these pieces into a permanent file for a bond-proceeds investment is its own topic, covered in our guide to the bond-proceeds compliance file.

mGIC is an independent, SEC-registered municipal advisor that sells no investment product and is paid by the winning provider; more about mGIC is on the about page.

To work with an SEC-registered advisor on a bond-proceeds reinvestment, you can request a free, no-obligation review or conversation.

Which records a specific issue must keep, and for how long, is a legal and tax determination: bond counsel and tax counsel make the final calls, and this page describes what the rules say rather than advising on any particular issue.

Last updated 2026-10-06.

This page is general educational information about municipal finance and federal and state rules as of the date shown. It is not legal, tax or investment advice, and it is not a recommendation about any particular investment. Product availability, legality and suitability depend on the issuer, jurisdiction, governing documents and transaction-specific facts. Final legal and tax determinations remain with the issuer's bond counsel, tax counsel and other advisors.