In addition to establishing the retention period for the brokerage records required by SEC rule 17a-3, rule 17a-4 identifies additional brokerage related documents to be preserved by the broker dealer and specifies the required retention periods for each.

Rule 17a-4 identifies the following additional documents to be retained by the broker dealer for a period of at least 3 years:

• All check books, bank statements, canceled checks and bank reconciliations
• All bills, receivable and payable, both paid and unpaid
• Originals of all communications received and copies of all communications sent by the broker dealer during the course of business
• All financial statements
• All branch office reconciliations
• All Internal Audit work papers
• All computations pursuant to SEC rule 15c3-3 - the Customer Protection Rule

Rule 17a-4 identifies the following additional documents to be retained by the broker dealer for a period of at least 6 years:

• All account records pertaining to customer accounts must be retained by the broker dealer for at least 6 years after such account is closed

Rule 17a-4 identifies the following additional documents to be retained by the broker dealer for the lifetime of the enterprise:

• All partnership articles or all articles of incorporation or charter - minute books and stock certificate books