In order to effectively manage their unique and complex needs, Family Offices are in need of a secure, organized, and collaborative cloud-based Digital Vault to share and manage sensitive information and documents.

As the lines between office life and our personal lives blur, it’s commonplace for Family Offices and family businesses to work remotely while at home and interact with clients and vendors on laptops, tablets, and even smartphones. For most, that convenience boosts productivity and improves work-life balance, but it also undermines data security. This is especially the case when it comes to sharing and managing important information and sensitive documents.

For convenience when working outside the office, it’s become routine for employees to store sensitive company and client documents on the cloud, whether that’s Google Drive, Evernote, or countless no-frills, free, cloud-storage services. At first take, it appears to be a reasonably safe, secure, and efficient way to manage such documents — except for the fact that it isn’t.

The carefree approach is so commonplace that it even has a name, Bring Your Own Cloud (BYOC) — four words that should strike fear in anyone responsible for data security at a family office or business.

While the assumption is that big-name cloud services are secure even if they are free, research suggests otherwise. A report from RedLock’s Cloud Security Intelligence team finds that “53% of organizations using cloud storage services such as Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) had inadvertently exposed one or more such services to the public.” RedLock’s Cloud Security Trends report finds that among the biggest challenges facing firms is storing information on the cloud without encryption. “Research revealed that 81% of organizations are not managing host vulnerabilities in the cloud.”

PC World’s blunt assessment of some of the best-known, free cloud storage services is that they are, “convenient, efficient — and notoriously insecure. Files are rarely encrypted, data transfer is typically not protected, and companies are usually able to access your files (even if they state they won’t, they may be legally compelled to do so).”

So, what should family offices and family businesses do to securely store their critical information? Business News Daily advises, “Cloud storage is one of the best investments a small business can make.” The keyword, of course, is “investment.” Companies need a secure, encrypted service that has all the benefits of the cloud — knowing where important data is filed, a disaster backup, access to files on the go, being able to share documents and multimedia files that are too big for email — without the drawbacks.

That’s the type of security and peace of mind that comes with FutureVault for Family Offices, keeping essential information in an encrypted vault at a secure data center with bank-grade protection.

Embracing the digital transformation

The reality is this — a strong investment in technology, namely cloud-based solutions, isn’t just “nice-to-have”, it’s an absolute must. This investment in technology provides Family Offices with an essential foundation to securely manage digital assets and embrace a best-in-class digital experience.

While security and protection of information assets have been and will continue to be a top priority, it doesn’t end there. There are three areas in particular that, when considering an investment in technology, play a significant role in making an impact.

1. Security and protection of digital assets

Your information, and of course, your clients, is your greatest asset. That’s why it’s extremely important for Family Offices to invest in technology that provides best-in-class security and protection. Safeguarding assets from loss, damage, and theft by keeping essential information and documents in an encrypted, cloud-based solution with bank-grade protection is a must.

2. Organization and management of documents

With so much information and documents at any given point in time, it’s extremely important for Family Offices to invest in technology that provides structure and organization to streamline the many administrative tasks related to organizing, filing, and sharing the financial, personal & administrative information for multiple entities.

According to Business.com, nearly 50% of professional time is spent looking for documents and other key information. With the right structure and organization, Family Offices, along with businesses everywhere, can reinvest time savings and focus on what matters; client experience.

3. Sharing and collaboration with Trusted Advisors

A large part of daily workflow involves the collaboration with Trusted Advisors such as family members, wealth managers, accountants, lawyers, and executives. This is why it’s extremely important for Family Offices to invest in technology that enhances document and information collaboration through shared permissions, e-signature integrations, and more.

Additionally, being able to securely access critical documents anytime and anywhere means that Family Office managers can easily manage their daily workflow when and where they need to.

FutureVault for Family Offices

FutureVault makes it easy to manage the unique and complex needs of your Family Office by providing a secure, organized, and collaborative way to share and manage important documents.

Beyond security and compliance, FutureVault allows for collaboration with your network of Trusted Advisors such as those family members, wealth managers, accountants, lawyers, and executives mentioned above, negating the need to email sensitive documents such as customer contracts or tax returns.

It also makes finding documents easy, coming preloaded with 200 folder directory categories and over 1,400 suggested documents and summary forms, ensuring intelligent organization. It even comes loaded with the latest artificial intelligence — Optical Character Recognition technology recognizes documents and suggests where to file them, making retrieval quick and easy. And, like all great premium services, a concierge is available to help with any issues.

As American’s best investor Warren Buffett says, “Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.” When it comes to securely managing the digital assets of your Family Office or business secure,