Independent Payment Processing is Good For Financial Advisor Client Protection

Everyone knows trust must be at the core of every good relationship, and this is even more true when money is involved. As a general rule, nobody likes to worry about money, but it remains a top concern in our highly technological world due to the ever-present risks of credit card fraud, phishing, spyware, and identity theft.

As a financial advisor, whether you are dealing with clients or payment processors, you must make client protection your top priority. If you compromise the security of your clients, you will lose their trust. Once that trust is lost, it is nearly impossible to earn back.

Delivering the best service possible to your clients is important, but the current technological and regulatory climate means you must also make sure you have a compliant and secure system.

AdvicePay helps to fulfill all these needs by implementing the perfect fee-for-service model. And the good news is, AdvicePay helps create a compliant and secure system that is also compatible with fee-for-service.

Features Top Level Security

AdvicePay is designed to be completely secure and up-to-date with cybersecurity advances. The system utilizes the latest in encryption technology (256-bit encryption code) and HTTPS protocol. Additionally, the software is designed so all data is “encrypted at rest,” which ensures the security of all the data. This way data gets backed up on an hourly basis in order to eliminate the risk of data loss.

The entire system was designed to make sure that AdvicePay would not hold the private data of clients. Only the first name, last name, and a few other pieces of information are stored by AdvicePay. Payment data is stored with Stripe because AdvicePay uses their managed connect program. Stripe is a PCI Level 1 compliant company, which is the highest level a company can be rated. Additionally, they are a massive company that deals with a significant number of payments every day, so they have the expertise required to secure all data.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) provides the servers for the rest of the data. AWS is designed for efficient scaling of companies and they are best-in-class on many levels (management, facilities, security, etc.). As a small company, the best security AdvicePay or any of its clients could possibly get is from AWS.

Helps Alleviate Regulators’ Top Concerns

Regulators worry about more than just custody (although AdvicePay has been designed to avoid triggering custody). They also want to know that clients have access to certain payment processing features that will help keep them protected.

For example, regulators see it as very important that clients are able to cancel payments without having to speak to their advisors. The worry is that financial advisors make it difficult to cancel subscription services, similar to gym memberships, which have proven to be “sticky” in the past.

Protecting your clients is the best way to build a long-term brand, and AdvicePay has been engineered to make this as easy for you as possible. Regulators view the system favorably and clients trust the system, both of these two things will help you maintain and build long-term brand value.