Retail communications, correspondence, and institutional communications tested on the Series 6 exam.
Series 6 often starts communication questions by asking what kind of communication is in front of you. That classification matters because the standards, approval expectations, and filing obligations can change depending on whether the message is retail, correspondence, or institutional.
High-Yield Communication Distinctions
Communication type
Core idea
Exam trap
retail communication
broad communication to retail investors
forgetting that the wider audience can trigger stricter review
correspondence
more limited communication to fewer recipients
assuming “smaller audience” means no supervision
institutional communication
directed to institutional parties
confusing audience sophistication with total rule exemption
The best exam answer identifies the audience first, then applies the matching rule bucket.
Key Takeaways
Communication-type questions are audience questions first.
Classification errors usually lead to approval and filing mistakes later in the fact pattern.
The stronger answer starts by asking who received the message and in what context.