FutureVault Successfully Granted Third US Patent for Entity Functionality

FutureVault Granted U.S. Patent for Dynamic Visualization  

Proprietary Functionality Permits the Dynamic Visualization of Multiple Entities within a Digital Vault

Solves for Wealth Management “Householding” and Tees up Wealth Managers to Retain 2nd and 3rd Generation Family Relationships throughout the Impending Multi-Trillion-Dollar Great Wealth Transfer.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Toronto, Ontario, December 14, 2022  — FutureVault, an industry-leading provider of secure digital document vault and Personal Life Management Vault™ solutions for the financial services and wealth management industry, is pleased to announce that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has successfully granted the patent application US11475074B2, Real-time document filtering systems and methods.

This patented functionality enables FutureVault users to effectively filter and dynamically view documentation, data, and information in real-time associated with the Entities created and managed by users within the platform.

FutureVault allows Vault Holders, whom are typically individual and household clients of financial services and wealth management firms including Family Offices, to create and manage multiple Entities within their FutureVault. Documentation, data, and information that reside within the secure digital vault are “tagged” to be associated with the respective Entities.

Examples of Entities include, but are not limited to:

  • ➜ People (spouse, children, parents)
  • ➜ Properties (principal residence, investment properties, recreational)
  • ➜ Businesses (holding companies and LLCs)
  • ➜ Accounts (Trusts, Foundations)

In the wealth management space, and in particular, with Multi-Family Office Managers dealing with high-net-worth Families, managing, sorting, and organizing household assets, information, and documents has traditionally been a time-consuming and cumbersome challenge. By leveraging the ability to create and dynamically manage Entities across a household, FutureVault’s platform equips wealth professionals with the ability to solve for many of the challenges related to the reporting and management of “householding”. The functionality also adds tremendous value to the household.

Managing the array of documents, data, and information across multiple generations is significant and top of mind for most, if not all, wealth management firms and wealth advisors. The FutureVault platform creates an opportunity for wealth management companies and their advisors to build deeper relationships with their clients and their 2nd and 3rd generations by helping households organize, preserve, and protect family assets indefinitely. This Entities feature will play an important role within the wealth management industry as it embraces a clear strategy to optimally participate in the coming intergenerational Great Wealth Transfer.

The Great Wealth Transfer has huge implications for the wealth management industry:  

  • ➜ 70 million baby boomers are preparing to pass an estimated $15 trillion in assets to younger cohorts in the next 10 years
  • ➜ An estimated 18,500 individuals with a net worth of $100 million or more will be transferring most of their assets to a new generation
  • ➜ Somewhere around 45% to 80% of heirs will “fire” their parent’s financial advisor(s) and switch firms

“We are incredibly pleased that the US Patent Office has recognized the uniqueness of the Entity management and dynamic visualization capabilities in our platform,” said G Scott Paterson, Co-Founder & Executive Chairman of FutureVault.  “This patent strengthens the differentiation of FutureVault’s platform by providing unique and sophisticated functionality to manage critical data, documents, and information across household entities, generations, and geographies. By doing so, we are able to create massive opportunities for wealth advisors to engage with the next generation, and for households to better manage, preserve, and protect their assets and their information.”

The successful grant of its third patent continues to position FutureVault as the industry leader in secure document vault and Personal Life Management Vault solutions.

Statistic sources:

https://www.wealthx.com/report/wealth-transfer-report-2019/

https://www.fa-mag.com/news/the-next-gen-redefines-retirement-59988.html

Key Takeaways from Schwab IMPACT 2022 - FutureVault

5 Key Takeaways from Schwab IMPACT® 2022

Our conference participant review was originally provided for the Institute for Innovation Development.

At the beginning of November, our team exhibited at Schwab Advisor Services’ annual IMPACT conference in Denver, CO.

This year’s conference returned to an in-person format for the first time in two years due to COVID and hosted 5,000 live attendees at the Colorado Conference Center, with somewhere around 2,500 of those attendees being wealth advisors and professionals.  

This year’s IMPACT was also the first time in conference history to bring together advisors on the Schwab and TD Ameritrade custodial platforms under the same roof since TD Ameritrade was acquired by Schwab back in 2019. 

FutureVault team and Schwab IMPACT 2022
From left to right: Michael Reynolds (Director of Sales), Daniel Kenny (CEO), Kristian Borghesan (CMO)

Widespread excitement and contagious energy filled the conference center over the course of the three days and not once did this level of energy dissipate or fizzle out.

The energy levels were high, the people were amazing, the keynotes and presentations were thought-provoking and rich with insight, the events and socials were buzzing, and most importantly, there was optimism and encouragement for a bright future ahead. 

Below are our top 5, from many, key takeaways from this year’s conference that will impact, no pun intended, and influence the course for 2023 and beyond.

1. The Schwab and TD Ameritrade Integration will be complete by Labor Day 2023

Charles Schwab’s acquisition of TD Ameritrade has been the single largest story and development in the RIA custodial space in the last few years. The deal, which was announced in late 2019 and officially closed in the Fall of 2020, brings together two multi-trillion-dollar RIA custodians and their ecosystems, creating a massive integration process to transition advisors and clients from the TD platform to Schwab.

This multi-trillion-dollar integration of the two platforms makes Schwab the largest RIA custodian, by a landslide. To put it into perspective, the two platforms are responsible for more than half of all assets managed by Registered Investment Advisors.

And now, the complete integration of the Schwab and TD Ameritrade platforms and ecosystems has a final date — Labor Day 2023. This means that the transition for advisors currently on TD Ameritrade Institutional over to Schwab Advisor Services will likely take place over the 2023 Labor Day weekend.

An applauded moment during the IMPACT opening remarks was when Schwab’s Head of Advisor Services, Bernie Clark, confirmed with the audience (advisors) that Schwab does not intend to implement a custodial fee that some other RIA custodial competitors have been considering amidst market headwinds.

While there is certainly a lot that can happen from now until the Labor Day 2023 weekend, the industry will certainly be paying close attention to the progression and eventual completion of the Schwab and TD Ameritrade integration.

2. Personalization continues to be a critical theme for Advisors

The significance of the topic, or rather the theme, of Personalization, continues to be echoed across the country and throughout conference halls everywhere.

During the opening ceremony and remarks, Bernie Clark and Walt Bettinger signaled just how significant personalization is and how this “theme” is central to everything in modern-day wealth management. Bettinger even called and compared personalization to that of a freight train for Advisors.

Meaning this shift in consumer behavior and new client expectations are coming at Advisors faster than many may realize and/or acknowledge. This is very telling of where the industry needs to go and where it is very evidently headed.

The Digital Client Experience, and Personalization as an extension, need to be prioritized across every single level of the organization. Plain and simple.

This is no longer an Advisor-only duty and obligation, but rather an organization-wide strategic narrative that simply must be baked into the DNA of modern financial services and wealth management firms.

Julie Littlechild and her team at Absolute Engagement are huge advocates of personalization and helping Advisors take their digital client experience to the next level. At this year’s IMPACT, Julie shared some of her recent thinking around mindset, engagement, and the future of client experiences during her session which was called How Client Mindset is Changing the Client Experience. When it comes to this topic, Julie and her team are undoubtedly at the top of the expert list — if you are not following Julie, you need to be.

Keeping with the theme of personalization, Chris Volpe, Managing Director at Zephyr shared his thoughts at IMPACT regarding how technology is enabling better client relationships by affording firms and advisors the ability to personalize communications at scale, in a way that really matters for clients.

Zephyr’s Chris Volpe on Client-Focused Technology and the Significance of Personalization

3. Frictionless client onboarding and account opening workflow is a major area of focus

Creating the ultimate onboarding experience, one that is frictionless, easy, and enjoyable for clients, will continue to drive strategic narratives and influence spending in 2023.

From better back- and front-office enrichment and automation to more tightly integrated processes with e-signature capabilities, firms are looking to shape their onboarding process to button up compliance and security concerns, improve professional productivity by saving valuable time, and most importantly, deliver the best possible client experience.

This was evident in the hundreds of conversations our team had with advisors and back-office teams. One of the (many) areas that really stood out during these conversations was FutureVault’s e-signature automation and capabilities to automatically provision and create new client Vault accounts, while simultaneously automatically delivering all e-signed onboarding documents directly into specific folder locations in one or many Vaults instantaneously. For the back office and compliance teams, this gives confidence in a secure delivery method of critical documents while meeting document retention requirements. For the front office and advisors, it means less time is spent manually sorting, filing, and sending documents to clients. And for the client, it means that any-and-all signed documents by the client are available and accessible to them in their personal digital vault.

Remember, the initial onboarding experience and account opening process can often pave the way for a long, healthy relationship; the opposite can also be true.

4. Technology enables business outcomes and helps you deliver and improve your value proposition

Over the last several years, we have witnessed the role technology has played and how it has evolved to be the cornerstone of wealth management.

What once used to be a nice-to-have has now evolved into a must-have to thrive and survive in today’s landscape.

Your technology stack isn’t just pieces of technology “glued” together in separate areas to achieve siloed outcomes. It has become more strategic than that and must be deployed to complement your strategic narrative and elevate the value proposition in all areas.

Shirl Penney, CEO of Dynasty Financial Partners delivered a great presentation full of takeaway insights on how (and why) firms absolutely must look to tech-enable their business. Shirl’s presentation really resonated with our team and our philosophies, but what caught my attention on one of his slides was the question he posed at the bottom, “Can you double your number of clients without doubling your headcount?”.

In the same presentation, Shirl breaks down four components of WealthTech:

  1. Business
  2. Investments
  3. Consumer
  4. Data Analytics. 

This thought-provoking question and the four components above, imply just how critical technology has become and will continue to become to deliver business outcomes, improve upon strategic decision-making and be central to the value proposition of your firm in 2023 and beyond.

5. 360 Integration is critical for WealthTech providers 

Wealth management firms and advisors are feeling pressure when it comes to making technology decisions, and rightfully so. It is not only critical but rather necessary, that integration and Open APIs exist for modern WealthTech firms.

The lack of connectivity and seamless integration is a very prominent challenge across the industry. As firms venture down the path of siloed technology implementations, we continue to see the rise of integration challenges, amongst other significant challenges which include resource allocation, financial risks, loss of productivity, and a poor client experience. 

But what’s more of a challenge than the lack of integration between technology providers is the lack of connectivity and integration into operational processes and client workflow.

From back and middle office tools and technology to advisor-facing and client-facing portals, the winning recipe is creating an ecosystem of best-of-breed technologies that create, in the words of AppCrown’s Franklin Tsung, a “Digital Advisor 360 Platform.

Franklin also predicts that many advisors will soon be looking at their technology stacks as tech providers consolidate. During an interview at IMPACT, he shares why many independent advisors will be looking at multi-custodial, independent technology that can help them scale in the year ahead, such as online communities, document vaults, portals, and marketing integration that connect seamlessly with CRM systems.

AppCrown’s Franklin Tsung on Building Community with Technology

Bonus Takeaway: SEC compliance continues to shake up the industry

SEC Compliance handling is a top-of-mind priority that has firms and advisors pay close attention to what’s unfolding, especially as the SEC continues to amend existing rules and propose new ones, causing chaos, panic, stress, and a lot of head-scratching.

The reality is that the majority of firms are left scrambling to find a solution and that’s if they even know where to begin looking in the first place. Below are three compliance requirements and rulings from the SEC related to managing critical documents and record-keeping that continue to receive a lot of attention:

1) SEC document retention compliance, Rule 17a-4, and the requirement of having a Write-Once-Ready-Many (WORM) format. 

2) Enhanced disclosure and archiving of all marketing/advertising communications. The deadline for this new ruling was on Nov 4th, 2022, however, the majority of firms have likely pushed this off into the new year for many reasons (not knowing where to start, waiting to see what unfolds first, and downplaying its significance are the three most common reasons).

3) 3rd Party Vendor Management Due Diligence (the SEC has proposed new oversight requirements for certain client and third-party outsources including record-keeping related to due diligence and third-party service monitoring.

FutureVault Background Blue Swoop

Platform Release: V4.3.1 (11.10.2022)

Yesterday, our team released a new update to the FutureVault platform to make managing your everyday workflow that much easier. 

Below is a snapshot of what’s new and improved from this recent release. 

New Features

Clone-Rep

Clone Representative

Cloning an existing user’s permissions is a quick and easy shortcut to assign similar folder permissions and client access permissions.

Global-TA

Global Trusted Advisor

If your firm is working with the same 3rd parties across multiple clients, you can now easily create a Global Trusted Advisor and assign them to multiple client Vaults at the same time. 

Private-section

 Private Folders

Private Folders are a secure way to manage a single source of truth for all client-related documentation. Admins, Reps, and Advisors can now create a private section within client Vaults to store internal client-related documents that clients cannot view or access.

Recent Platform Enhancements

Additional Upgrades & UI/UX Enhancements

In addition to the above, several recent enhancements have been made across the platform to improve workflow and the overall user experience.

➜ New custom document icons;

➜ Accessibility improvements (quick access buttons, colors, fonts);

➜ Page descriptions have been added across the Platform;

➜ The ability to add labels to folders and documents (in bulk);

➜ Trusted Advisor status indication is available to Clients;

➜ Improved ability to sort and filter lists; 

➜ Set and toggle language preferences (English vs French)

NBW Capital LLC Partners with FutureVault to Launch Digital Vault for Clients

NBW Capital Launches Client-Facing Digital Vault in Partnership with FutureVault

NBW Capital LLC leverages FutureVault’s award-winning Digital Vault technology to enhance the firm’s digital client experience while bringing operational efficiencies to the table by automating the secure delivery of multi-custodial documents and improving document workflow capabilities.  

Boston, MA, USA — NBW Capital LLC (“NBW Capital”), an independent Registered Investment Advisor located in Boston, today announces the launch of its client-facing digital vault, the NBW Capital Vault, in partnership with FutureVault, the industry-leading provider of secure document exchange and Personal Life Management Vault™ solutions for the financial services industry.

The NBW Capital Vault leverages FutureVault’s white-labeled platform to enhance back and front-office operational efficiencies, assisting with the firm’s (NBW Capital) ESG and digital transformation initiatives toward paperless communication and workflows. The FutureVault platform equips NBW Capital with modern solutions and tools to improve the relationships the firm has with clients and their network of Trusted Advisors.

NBW Capital staff, advisors, and clients can effectively receive, upload, and share critical files including onboarding documents, recurring client statements, market updates and communications, estate plans, and financial services agreements, all in one centralized, organized, and secured NBW-branded digital vault. A major component of the FutureVault platform is its ability to automatically bring in multi-custodial statements, freeing up valuable professional time and improving the client’s experience. FutureVault will be attending this year’s Schwab IMPACT conference.

“We look forward to our partnership with FutureVault and seeing the impact the NBW Capital Vault will have on improving the value offering through digital-led initiatives, along with the operational workflow and compliance benefits we will gain,” commented Scott Dorsey, Vice President, Director of Operations at NBW Capital. Chris Blakely, Partner and Chief Operating Officer at NBW Capital further commented, “This is a huge milestone for our firm and we look forward to the way this new technology will help us significantly scale several back and front office processes, ultimately enabling our team to spend more quality time with clients and their families.”

A few, of the many, key features and components of NBW Capital Vault include:

  • ➜ Best-in-class security and compliance features to meet data privacy and document retention regulations
  • ➜ White-labeled and branded client-facing portal
  • ➜ Structured taxonomy to store, manage, and access corporate and client documents securely and efficiently
  • ➜ Bulk upload capabilities to digitize historical corporate records and regularly recurring client documents
  • ➜ Automatically deliver multi-custodial documents to clients, including account statements and tax documents

“Chris, Mike, Ben, Sean, and the team at NBW Capital are trusted fiduciaries of their clients’ wealth — our team is looking forward to facilitating their journey to enhance data security and the advisor-client experience, and ultimately redefine workflow processes through digital-led capabilities,” commented Nevin Markwart, former Boston Bruins first-round draft pick and Chief Information Security Officer at FutureVault.


About NBW Capital LLC

NBW Capital is a Boston-based registered investment advisor. Our partners have over 130 years of combined experience in the investment management industry.

Founded in 1991, the company has a 30-year history of delivering strong investment performance versus various benchmarks. Importantly, our interests align with our clients in that we invest our personal wealth alongside our clients’ investments in our strategies. Our mission is to work with our clients to understand their individual goals and investment needs. We believe that developing a long-lasting relationship is one of the keys to assisting clients in setting their financial plans. Our knowledge of taxable and tax-deferred investments allows us to adjust in response to changes in personal circumstances as they arise.


About FutureVault

FutureVault’s award-winning and industry-leading secure document exchange and digital vault platform is transforming how documents are managed, accessed, and delivered to clients via the Personal Life Management Vault™. In addition to revolutionizing the digital client experience, FutureVault’s multi-tiered platform is providing back and front-office teams with massive operational and compliance efficiency gains leading to 30% time and cost savings by streamlining document handling workflows through automation, integrations, AI, and unique and patented document management features. FutureVault is recognized as a 5-star WealthTech Provider and a Top 100 Most Innovative Global WealthTech Solution Provider.

Visit futurevault.com to learn more. Follow us on LinkedIn.

FutureVault Background Blue Swoop

Platform Release: V4.3 (09.27.2022)

RELEASE DATE: 09.27.2022

Yesterday, we launched several exciting new features and enhancements to the FutureVault Platform, improving document management capabilities in addition to providing Enterprise users, Advisors, and Clients with an improved user experience across the Platform.

FutureVault Product Release V4.3

Keep reading below to discover what’s new and improved…  

Folder Taxonomy Templates

Folder structure (taxonomy) templates

Administrative users can now easily customize, create and assign unique folder structures via Template Management. This is a quick and efficient way to provide staff, advisors, and client segments with folder structures relevant to them in a few clicks. 

FutureVault Product Release - 4.3 - Private Folders

Private Folders

Advisors and Professional Vault users now have access to a Private Folders section inside client Vaults that the client cannot view or access. Private Folders are an effective way to manage a secure single source of truth for all client-related documentation. 

FutureVault Product Release - 4.3 - OBA Folders

Outside Business Activity (OBA) Folders

This new folder feature allows Advisors to create OBA Folders within client Vaults that only the Advisor and Client have access to, giving them privacy and equipping Advisors with the ability to efficiently manage all Outside Business Activities within the Vault.

FutureVault Product Release - 4.3 - Global Folders

Global Folders

Global Folders are an efficient way to share standardized material and documents to many recipients (via a Global Folder) in one simple action. This feature has been re-introduced into the platform and now provides Trusted Advisors and Vault Managers with the ability to search, view, and access Global Folders

FutureVault Product Release - 4.3 - View Options

Folder and document view improvements

Several interface and experience upgrades have been made to the different View Options (Tile, Icon, List Views) when viewing folders and/or documents.

Document preview improvements

Several improvements have been made when viewing documents directly within the Vault. This includes improvements to: adding contacts, assigning entities, sharing via an encrypted link, adding timebound access to third parties, intelligent reminders, document history/audit trail, download options, and more. 

FutureVault Product Release - 4.3 - UI and UX Enhancements

UI and UX platform enhancements

In addition to the above, several UI and UX enhancements have been made across the platform, significantly improving the overall look, feel, and experience of the platform including:

  • ➜ New custom document icons;
  • ➜ Accessibility improvements (buttons, colors, fonts);
  • ➜ Page descriptions added across the Platform;
  • ➜ Ability to add labels to folders and documents (in bulk);
  • Trusted Advisor status indication made available to Clients;
  • ➜ Improved ability to sort and filter lists; 
  • ➜ Ability to set language preference (English vs French) when creating new Vaults;
  • ➜ Improved look and feel of the Profile Settings page and options;

Interested in taking a product tour and seeing the above new features and enhancements? Book a time with our team to walk you through the Platform.

FutureVault Named 5-Star WealthTech Provider by Wealth Professional Canada Magazine

FutureVault Named 5-Star WealthTech Provider by Wealth Professional Canada

The 5-Star WealthTech Report published by Wealth Professional Canada Magazine recognizes technology pioneers and the top solutions in the wealth management industry.

Toronto, Ontario, September 26, 2022  — FutureVault, a pioneer of Personal Life Management Vaults™ and market-leading secure document exchange solutions was recognized earlier this morning as a 5-Star WealthTech Provider by Wealth Professional Canada.

Wealth Professional’s 5-Star WealthTech Providers report recognizes technology pioneers in the wealth management industry who are shaping innovation and creating unique technology that addresses fundamental industry-wide challenges. The report published by Wealth Professional Canada highlights the top technology firms in the industry that have successfully demonstrated their capabilities in taking technology to the next level by providing institutions, firms, advisors, and their clients with accessible and innovative solutions that break the status quo.

Wealth Professional Canada objectively assessed each entry for detailed information, leading innovation, and proven success – along with benchmarking against the other entries – to determine the 30 named 5-Star WealthTech Providers across the below categories:

➜ Financial Planning Software;
➜ CRMs;
➜ Back-Office Support;
➜ Financial Tools/ Dashboards;
➜ Digital Marketing

FutureVault Chief Executive Officer, Daniel Kenny, shared a few comments regarding the future intersection of technology and wealth management, along with the company’s growing recognition in the industry,

“Our technology has reached a tipping point in terms of awareness in the market, and the unique benefits we can offer our clients. What exactly is a vault? Why are financial institutions now invested in our technology? The answer lies in a paradigm shift happening right now that empowers the end client and makes their critical documents and data the cornerstone of every interaction with their financial services providers.”

Daniel Kenny, FutureVault CEO

While technology will undoubtedly play an ever-greater role in the daily lives of the modern wealth professional going forward, the platforms that improve the wealth professional’s capacity while importantly enabling greater value to be delivered to the end client and their family members will continue to be the most successful.

According to FutureVault, implementing best-of-breed WealthTech solutions can drive impact and influence three critical areas which include:

➜ Enabling client engagement to deepen the advisor-client relationship
➜ Automating advisor workflow to save significant time and money
➜ Enhancing information security and compliance capabilities

“Technology is no longer a nice-to-have, it’s an absolute must that is now deeply embedded into every critical area of modern wealth management,” commented Kristian Borghesan, FutureVault CMO. “We’re proud to not only gain recognition as an industry leader but to continue supporting firms by improving their ability to scale and ultimately deliver greater value to both their advisors and the households they serve.”

FutureVault Achieves Consecutive SOC 2 Type II Report

FutureVault Completes Consecutive SOC 2 Type II Examination with Top Global Auditor Ernst & Young

Toronto, Ontario, September 23, 2022  — FutureVault, an award-winning, industry-leading provider of secure document exchange and Digital Vault solutions pioneering the Personal Life Management Vault™, completes its second consecutive SOC 2 Type II examination, earning a SOC 2 Type II report issued by the global auditor Ernst & Young.

SOC 2 Type II is a robust certification within the Service Organization Control protocol, covering daily operations, ensuring that organizations adhere to and comply with leading information security policies and compliance standards for managing enterprise and client data.

FutureVault’s successful completion, of SOC 2 Type I in 2020, and now consecutive SOC 2 Type II certifications in 2021 and 2022 demonstrates the company’s ongoing commitment to industry best practices. The newly issued report for the examination period of August 01 2021 through to July 31 2022, validates the maturity, strength, and robustness of FutureVault’s internal information security, compliance, and technology protocols. Additionally, the SOC 2 Type II report reflects FutureVault’s ongoing commitment to best-in-class information security and document management for financial services organizations, professional service providers, and their clients.

While best practices are recommended for organizations undergoing the Service Organization Control examinations, the majority of organizations bypass the initial pre-assessment stage. Organizations like FutureVault that demonstrate best practices are considered the gold standard when it comes to securely protect enterprise and client data.

“The successful completion of our consecutive SOC 2 Type II examination is an incredible milestone for the FutureVault team and speaks to the maturity of our internal procedures and importantly, our ongoing commitment to information security” commented FutureVault’s Chief Technology Officer, Luke Kyleman.

“This milestone is indicative of the commitment we’ve set forth to provide our partners, customers, and their clients with world-class security and compliance policies to store, manage, and protect their information,” added Nevin Markwart, Chief Information Security Officer at FutureVault.

Supporting evidence and documentation provided by FutureVault during the SOC 2 Type II examination were stored, delivered, and accessed within the company’s corporate FutureVault product, where auditors were provisioned secure trusted access to folders and documents being requested. By conducting the examination within FutureVault, both parties streamlined accessing and requesting critical documents, saving significant time and money by eliminating back-and-forth manual exchanges of documentation. The ability to perform and streamline audit assessments within FutureVault’s secure digital vault platform demonstrates the maturity of the company’s technology and information security protocols.  

The Four Flaws and the Future of Document Management

The Four Fundamental Flaws of Document Management in Wealth Management

The traditional approach to document management in financial services and wealth management is not only outdated and flawed but comes with a handful of challenges for firms and advisors.

When you stack up the list of challenges, it’s easy to see that they result in very inefficient workflow, a resource drain on human capital, poor client and household experiences, compliance and data privacy concerns, and ultimately make it difficult for firms to scale.

Four Fundamental Flaws with Managing Documents Today

While numerous challenges (flaws) exist with the traditional approach and current systems implemented, there are four in particular that are quite prominent and have negative impacts on the firms and advisors that are still relying on them.

  1. Traditional document management is built for one function or level within an organization
  2. Traditional document management disregards the needs of the client
  3. Traditional document management requires effort and is cumbersome
  4. Traditional document management lacks visibility and compliance oversight by head office

Let’s quickly unpack these four flaws along with how they are causing very significant capacity and scale challenges for institutions and firms.

1. Focuses on only one function or “level”

It’s not uncommon for traditional document management systems to focus on providing value to one function or ‘level’ of an organization; usually, that ends up being either a back-office and compliance focus or on the advisor.

This results in a very disconnected document handling workflow across front, middle, and back-office teams along with key stakeholders and third parties involved in the process chain, ultimately leading to significant professional time spent handling unnecessary manual tasks. 

We’ve also seen many instances where several different document management solutions are being used by different teams and levels of the organization as a result.

2. Doesn’t deliver value to clients and family members

A major challenge, which is quite the oversight, is that the needs of the investor (client) are almost always either ignored entirely or are just an afterthought.

This results in a less-than-optimal experience when it comes to accessing, managing, and protecting personal and financial information for clients.

FutureVault Founder and Exec Chairman, G. Scott Paterson, recognized this as an opportunity, which eventually lead to the genesis of FutureVault and the Personal Life Management Vault™.

3. Requires manual intervention and is time-consuming

Many of the current “solutions” for managing advisor and client documents require support from key staff, including advisors, client services associates, and back-office teams to manually deliver, sort, file, and manage documents.

Ultimately, this means valuable professional time is being spent on manual, cumbersome, and inefficient work that can and should be otherwise spent working on the business and importantly, with clients.

4. Lacks visibility and compliance oversight

Last but certainly not least, from a compliance perspective, Head Offices and Broker-Dealers often lack visibility and the compliance oversight needed to know how, where, when, and what types of documents are being stored, shared, accessed, and managed at any given time of the day.

Not only does this cause friction and create a tremendous amount of work for back office teams, but this can create significant challenges and headaches during regulatory audits and reviews. 

The Future of Document Management for Wealth Management

Here at FutureVault, we’re paving the way for the future of document management in financial services and wealth management. A modernized approach where document handling workflows are synchronized and connected across the organization, where systems are integrated, where automation and AI play a role, and importantly where investors, clients, and families benefit from the ability to easily manage their personal life via a Personal Life Management Vault™.

FutureVault Chief Technology Officer, Luke Kyleman, shares some of his thoughts in the video below about what the future of document management looks like for firms and advisors, along with a few of the many ways we’re solving for the current, time-consuming, outdated approach.

FutureVault Chief Technology Officer, Luke Kyleman, shares his thoughts on the current challenges and the future of wealth management for firms and advisors with Advisorpedia at the T3 Conference.

Fortunately, we’ve been able to identify the many challenges mentioned above, enabling and positioning us to build a unique and innovative approach to managing documents and the processes that they’re involved with through a multi-tiered solution where all constituents involved — front, middle, and back-office teams, along with clients and households – benefit and gain tremendous value.

Interested in learning more? We’re ready to talk and take you through how our award-winning, industry-leading platform is successfully helping firms and their advisors save significant time and money, and deliver an elevated digital client experience for the generations of today and tomorrow.