As a financial advisor, you have a duty to keep your clients’ personally identifiable information (PII) safe and secure. In the old days, that meant keeping file cabinets locked and a paper shredder handy. However, today’s advisory firms rely on technology to provide a modern client experience. No longer confined to paper records, your client data is now digitized and often stored on cloud-based platforms.
While technology can make client service more seamless, it can also introduce risks into your practice. That’s why it’s vital you find tech partners that have measures in place to help you protect client PII and keep bad actors away from sensitive client data.
ECF Connect is one feature within the broader El Camino Financial ecosystem that’s designed to do just that: help keep your client’s financial data secure.
What is ECF Connect? Proprietary, firewalled client-advisor communication
Exchanging sensitive client information is a daily part of your work as a financial advisor. Whether you’re collecting paperwork as part of the onboarding process or sending your client an updated financial plan, you need a secure way to transfer that information.
ECF Connect is a proprietary solution that firewalls client information, helping protect it from unauthorized access. Communication flows are encrypted and auditable, and data is contained within the ECF ecosystem.
Unlike generic file-sharing tools, ECF Connect was built to serve the advisory industry and takes into account the need for heightened security and safety. These are four of the features that contribute to ECF Connect’s security.
1. Multi-tenancy architecture built for financial advisors
ECF Connect uses a true multi-tenancy structure, which allows advisory firms to operate in their own environment — apart from other firms on the platform — and to silo client data within their ecosystem. Each advisory firm can set independent user and permission controls.
The multi-tenancy architecture model allows for greater scalability with less risk and reduces cross-tenant exposure vulnerabilities.
2. A team that’s entirely U.S.-based
While many fintechs rely on offshore support to power their systems, ECF’s team is based entirely in the United States.
That means we maintain full control over development practices and clear jurisdiction over data handling. And because our team is based in the same country our clients serve, we have a firm understanding of regulatory expectations and a framework to help clients remain in compliance.
3. Data collection methods that bypass third-party data aggregators
Many advisory platforms rely on third-party data aggregators to feed client information into their system. While this may provide the appearance of greater ease, it also introduces risk into the data collection process.
In recognition of the risks associated with data aggregators, some large firms, like Fidelity, are restricting the use of tools that rely on tactics like screen scraping and credential sharing.
Instead of routing data through intermediaries, which introduces a potential failure point where bad actors can access client PII, ECF Connect uses a simple, intuitive seven-step intake form — ECF Discovery — that allows advisors to gather information directly from clients as part of their introductory conversations.
4. Strengthened user registration processes
Fintech tools face risks when lax onboarding processes give cyber criminals an opportunity to infiltrate the platform.
At ECF, we’ve built an enhanced user registration workflow that screens users more effectively. This helps us limit account creation abuse and reduce fraud and impersonation attempts, which in turn helps keep existing accounts secure and curtails the creation of fake accounts.
Ready to see how ECF could benefit your advisory team? Schedule a demo with us, or email hello@elcaminofinancial.com to learn more.