Running an advisory service means a lot of paperwork—whether it’s client communication, trades, emails, research, social media—the list is nearly endless. And considering that regulatory requirements mandate pristine paper trails, proper archiving is critical.
For email, Mike Forker, chief compliance officer for CLS Investments, part of NorthStar Financial Services Group, says his firm uses Global Relay, which offers compliance archiving and monitoring, and integrates with Microsoft’s Outlook email system.
“From my perspective, the best part about it is the search capability,” he said. “It has a pretty robust archiving system that allows us to search in a number of different ways, so it makes it easy to find emails even if you don’t know exactly what to look for.”
No Need For Scanning Dept
Document storage can take up huge amounts of file space, and keeping the integrity of these documents is important. Forker said Laserfiche is a “WORM” [write once, read many] compliance system for data storage, meaning documents cannot be edited once entered. Using Laserfiche helped CLS Investments save money and time by eliminating the need for a scanning department, he notes.
Prior to using Laserfiche, CLS Investments managed documents by using FileNet. Similar to Laserfiche, FileNet combines enterprise content, security and storage with workflow and process management capabilities. Forker says they switched to Laserfiche because it integrates with their back-office systems.
Dave Huffman, president and founder of the Huffman Financial Group, says he exclusively uses Advisors Assistant for his customer relationship management software, but also likes its archiving capability.
All In One Place For Compliance
“It helps me keep really good notes, and it has helped me become a lot more compliant because everything is in the clients’ files. When my compliance department comes in to do my audit … I always get a perfect inspection. They ask for a file, I’ve got it within 30 seconds,” he said.
David Garff, chief executive officer and chief investment officer for California-based Accuvest Global Advisors, says Datto is the hardware and cloud-based system they use as a backup server. Datto backs up all work several times daily, and if the firm has a problem, whether a server issue or power loss, they can spin up a virtual server with all of the information on it in 15 minutes, letting work proceed as normal, he notes.
For social media compliance, Forker said CLS Investments uses Social Assurance, which integrates with the company’s social media sites including its Facebook and LinkedIn pages, and the firm’s Twitter account.
Archiving Social Media
Social Assurance has a workflow built in, so whenever someone at CLS wants to post to social media, all of those posts are immediately routed to compliance for approval. Those posts are also archived, and it records any changes to social media posts.
And if by some chance a social media post gets around compliance, it will send an alert, Forker adds. In addition to monitoring and holding internal postings for compliance approval, the software can monitor what is said about CLS Investments.
“So if someone mentions us on Twitter, we get a notification; or if someone writes a Facebook post about us, we get a mention,” he said.
Article Originally written By Debbie Carlson for February 2016 issue of ETF Report
