Facts checked on October 5, 2026. Carrier and provider requirements change, so confirm the current forms with your texting provider.
If your firm texts clients or prospects from a local ten-digit business number through any texting software, the US carriers expect that traffic to be registered for A2P 10DLC. Registration has two parts. The brand tells carriers who is sending, and the campaign tells them what you send and how people agreed to receive it.
Most advisors never deal with the registry directly. Your texting platform submits the registration for you, but you supply the details, and they have to match your tax records and your website. When a registration stalls, the cause is usually a mismatch between the form and those public facts.
This guide explains what each part asks for, how to choose between a 10DLC number, a toll-free number and a short code, and where carrier registration stops and your compliance obligations begin. It is general information, not legal or compliance advice. OJay Media Marketing builds client-acquisition systems for advisors, so we have a commercial interest in how firms follow up with prospects.
What 10DLC means for an advisory firm
10DLC stands for ten-digit long code, which is an ordinary local phone number. Twilio’s A2P 10DLC guide describes the standard as the system US carriers use to make sure business texts sent over local numbers are verified and consensual. A2P means application to person, and carriers treat any message sent through a messaging provider as application traffic, even when an advisor types it by hand.
That last point surprises many firms. A texting feature inside your CRM or archiving tool still runs through a provider, so a personal-sounding text from software still counts as business messaging. Twilio’s guide states that anyone sending messages to the US over a 10DLC number from an application has to register, and that unregistered traffic faces more filtering.
The registration itself lives with The Campaign Registry, the central hub where campaign service providers register their customers’ brands and the campaigns linked to them. Your texting platform usually acts as that service provider. You answer its questions, and it passes your details to the registry and the carriers for review.
10DLC, toll-free, or a short code
A local number is not the only route. Twilio’s guide notes that toll-free numbers and short codes sit outside the 10DLC system and can also reach US recipients. Each one has its own approval path, so the choice depends on how your firm texts.
A 10DLC number suits the common advisor pattern: one advisor texting their own clients, with replies coming back to a number the client recognizes. Toll-free numbers suit a single firm-wide line, and Twilio’s toll-free verification guide explains that those numbers cannot text US and Canadian recipients until verification is approved. Short codes are five- or six-digit numbers obtained through the Short Code Registry and then approved with a messaging partner, which makes them a fit for large programs rather than personal follow-up.
Most small and mid-sized advisory firms end up with 10DLC because clients expect to reach their advisor directly. Pick the number type around how clients reply, not around volume alone.
Which kind of business number fits your firm?
Answer for the texting you actually plan to do. Each destination names what to ask your provider about, not a final choice.
Routes follow the Twilio, Short Code Registry and CTIA pages checked on October 5, 2026. Your firm’s policy and your provider decide the final setup.
- Who will send the texts?
Consider who writes and signs each text.
- Individual advisors texting their own clients
- The firm sending the same message to many people
- Do clients need to see a local number?
Many firms want replies to reach the advisor who sent the text.
- Yes, a local number per advisor or office
- No, use one firm-wide number
- Will most of your client list get these texts?
Examples include reminders or alerts to most of your client base.
- Yes, regular texts to a large list
- No, occasional texts to a small group
- Register a 10DLC brand and campaign
Ask your provider which campaign use case fits one-to-one client service and how each advisor’s number joins the campaign.
- Ask about toll-free verification
Toll-free numbers sit outside 10DLC but need their own verification before they can text US recipients.
- Ask about a short code
A five- or six-digit code goes through the Short Code Registry and a separate carrier review with your provider.
What the brand registration asks for
The brand is your firm’s identity. Twilio’s page on the business information 10DLC registration requires lists the fields, and a few of them cause most of the trouble for advisory firms. The first is the legal name. For a US entity, Twilio asks for the exact legal business name registered with the EIN, as shown on the IRS CP 575 confirmation letter, and warns that a W-9 may differ. Copy the name from your EIN letter, not from your marketing.
The website is checked too. The same page explains that reviewers capture the site you submit, and that the registry rejects addresses that do not load, point to a parked or for-sale domain, require a login, or redirect to a different brand. For a firm that markets under a trade name, the site has to bear a clear relationship to the registered legal name. A footer that names the legal entity usually settles that question.
Contact details matter as well. Public companies complete an email check, and Twilio’s page notes that personal webmail and distribution-list addresses fail it, so use an address on your firm’s own domain. A solo advisor without an EIN registers as a sole proprietor brand, which Twilio’s guide limits to a single campaign. A solo practice with an LLC and an EIN registers as a standard or low-volume standard brand instead.
Registration through a broker-dealer adds one more question. Many broker-dealers approve specific texting tools and may already hold a registration that your messages must run under. Ask your home office before your own provider submits anything.
Describing your campaign
The campaign tells reviewers what you will send. Twilio’s business information page asks for a description that names the sender, the recipients, and the reason for the messages, plus a use case such as customer care, account notification, marketing, or mixed. If you mainly text existing clients about meetings, forms and service questions, the customer care use case is the usual fit. Promotional texts to prospects are marketing, and they carry stricter consent expectations.
The opt-in description is where many submissions fail. The same page asks for a written account of every way people opt in. When the opt-in happens on a website, it asks for a link to that page and to the site’s privacy policy. The privacy policy has to state that mobile numbers are not shared, disclose how often messages arrive, and carry the standard notice that carrier message and data costs may apply. The site also needs a terms page on your own domain.
Sample messages complete the picture. Twilio’s page asks for two to five samples that match the description, name the brand in each one, and include any links or phone numbers your real messages will contain. Write samples that look exactly like the texts you will send. A sample that reads like a newsletter, attached to a customer care description, invites a rejection.
Takeaway: We have the opt-in page, privacy policy and sample texts written before registration starts, because reviewers judge the campaign by those public pages.
Tick each item once you have a written answer. Progress is saved in this browser when supported; nothing is sent.
- Which legal business name and EIN will you submit, and do they match our IRS letter?
- Which website URL will the reviewers check, and does it load without a login?
- Which campaign use case will you select for our messages?
- Where is our opt-in described, and does the page show what people agree to?
- Does our privacy policy say we do not share mobile numbers and state message frequency?
- Which sample messages will you submit, and does each one name our firm?
- How are STOP and HELP replies handled, and where are opt-outs recorded?
- How do our texts reach the archive our compliance team supervises?
The consent and opt-out habits carriers expect
Registration describes your consent process, and the carriers expect you to follow it. CTIA’s Messaging Principles and Best Practices sets out the industry expectations. A call to action should tell people what the program is, which number will text them, who is sending, and how to opt out. CTIA also recommends keeping a record of each opt-in, including when and how it happened, the wording the person saw, the campaign and the phone number.
For recurring texts, CTIA recommends a confirmation message after someone opts in that explains how often messages arrive and how to stop them. CTIA asks senders to honor the word STOP and everyday replies such as unsubscribe or quit. After one confirmation reply, no further texts should follow. Never text a purchased or shared list of phone numbers. CTIA’s guidance asks senders to build and vet their own opt-in lists.
Carrier expectations are not the whole legal picture. Consent for marketing texts also falls under federal telemarketing law, and our guide to text message marketing for financial advisors covers that side, along with which messages are worth sending at all.
Registration and recordkeeping are separate questions
A registered campaign means the carriers know who you are. It does not show whether your firm can supervise and keep those messages. FINRA’s Regulatory Notice 17-18 answers this directly: a firm that lets its people text about its business must first make sure it can retain records of those communications. The content of the message decides what has to be kept, not the device or app.
The SEC has pressed the same point. In a September 2022 recordkeeping action against a group of broker-dealers and an affiliated adviser, the agency described employees discussing business by text on personal devices and messages that the firms did not preserve. For texting, the practical rule is simple: choose a provider whose messages flow into the archive your compliance team already reviews, and have your reviewer approve the setup in writing.
Takeaway: We treat carrier registration and archiving as two separate approvals, and we confirm both before an advisor sends the first business text.
Why registrations get rejected or stall
Most delays trace back to a short list of causes. The legal name or EIN does not match IRS records, sometimes because the EIN is new; Twilio’s business information page notes that newly issued tax IDs can take weeks to reach the validation databases. The website fails the review because it is parked, behind a login, or under a different name. The opt-in is described in the form but cannot be seen on any public page. The privacy policy leaves out the statement about not sharing mobile numbers. The sample messages do not match the use case.
You can correct each of those before you submit. If a registration comes back rejected, ask your provider for the exact reason in writing, correct the public page or form field it names, and resubmit once the fix is live. Fix the public page first, then resubmit the form.
A few common questions
Do I need 10DLC if I text clients from my own cell phone?
Texts typed on a personal phone through your carrier are person-to-person traffic, which 10DLC does not cover. The bigger issue is recordkeeping. FINRA’s Regulatory Notice 17-18 expects firms to retain business texts, so most firms require an approved, archived texting tool instead.
How long does 10DLC approval take?
There is no reliable single public timeline. Review times vary by provider, brand type and how complete the submission is. Ask your provider for its current estimate, and have your website, opt-in page and privacy policy ready first so the review is not held up on your side.
Does every advisor in the firm need a separate registration?
Usually not. One brand represents the firm, and advisors’ numbers can be attached to a campaign under it. How your provider structures that, and whether your broker-dealer requires its own setup, is a question for both of them.
Related reading
- Text message marketing for financial advisors
- FINRA marketing compliance
- SEC marketing rule for financial advisors
- Financial advisor email signatures
- Financial advisor email templates
If you are also rethinking how prospects reach your firm before the first text, we explain the OJay Media Marketing process separately.
OJay Media Marketing is a marketing agency for wealth advisors. This page is general information for advisory firms. It is not investment, legal, or compliance advice. Have your reviewer approve your own materials before you use them.
