AdvisorVault Automates 17a-4 Archiving for Small FINRA Firms

Before putting in place a 17a-4 Remote Data Archiving solution as part of the FINRA designated
third part (D3P) obligations, it's important the firms know a few tricks to help them automate the
archiving of electronic records to close gaps.

New York, NY, November 03, 2018 --(PR.com)-- Recently, the 17a-4 electronic records request is
causing serious problems for small FINRA firms. Particularly, when they're asked for a sample data set
that can range from Word docs to scanned records, emails, databases or even systems state for disaster
recovery. The firm then has to login to their 17a-4 archive, download this data to a disk and hand it over
to the regulator on the spot.

The problem is, many firms' electronic records are now so dispersed that gaps often appear in their
archive or certain data simply isn't included because the tech department makes changes such as adding
new employees without compliance knowing.

Therefore, before putting in place a 17a-4 Remote Data Archiving solution as part of the FINRA
designated third part (D3P) obligations, it's important the firms know a few tricks to help them automate
the archiving of electronic records to close these gaps.

Centralizing 17a-4 Data Archiving:

When it comes to achieving SEC rule 17a-4, it's important to understand the basics of what's expected.
Despite all the confusion surrounding data compliance today, FINRA firms simply need to accomplish
three things: (1) Archive data relating to books and records, emails and systems for disaster recovery, (2)
store this archive with a designated third party for seven years and, (3) make sure this data can be made
available to regulators during an audit. Doing these three things will solve 90 percent of a firms data
compliance worries, the rest is just the proper procedures and documentation of the above.

Firstly, firms need centralize their books and records before they archive them with their FINRA D3P.
For example, when using cloud storage such as Dropbox, OneDrive or Google Drive, it's best to use the
sync folder option as the default save for all registered. This option, included with all cloud storage
products, places a local folder on each computer that is used to save electronic records created by each
person in the firm which are then saved in the same cloud folder. By doing this, all data for 17a-4
retention is stored centrally which AdvisorVault can easily make compliant in one step.

Furthermore, this sync folder can be used to centralize the storage of other important data that must be
archived to the designated third party for 17a-4. Such as scanned records, client database backup dumps
or exports from the CRM, while a at the same time, helping firms create a truly compliant paperless office
with access to electronic records to anyone, from anywhere. While in the end, keeping compliance
officers and auditors happy.

To automate email archiving for 17a-4 records retention and supervision, use cloud email hosting from

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Office 356 or Gmail but with the journaling feature enabled. Journaling automatically forwards all
incoming and outgoing emails from the cloud provider which are then retained for seven years in their
original format; the two critical things regulators want to see. Furthermore, if any email new accounts are
added, journaling automatically captures them in real time, without the need for compliance or tech
support to manually add them into their 17a-4 archive.

Finally, to automate disaster recovery as part of FINRA's business continuity planning requirements,
ShadowProtect is a good option to schedule full image copies of physical or virtual servers. These images
are then transferred to remote 17a-4 storage each time they are created. The key here for disaster recovery
is that any version of a server image can be booted or run directly from the cloud for immediate access.
This in turn to helps businesses minimize downtime since their physical servers wont be up during a
disaster. As an extra measure, ShadowProtect allows for granular restores of individual files or database if
needed during recovery.

Summary:

Small FINRA firms are having problems today with the 17a-4 electronic records request because gaps
often appear in their 17a-4 data archiving process. The solution is to centralize data before it's archived by
using the cloud sync option, journaling and ShadowProtect so that their D3P has one area for archiving
and retention of data as required by rule 17a-4, in the end the compliance officer will be able to download
anything requested by the regulator when they arrive for the regular electronic records request.

About AdvisorVault:

AdvisorVault, designed for small firms, is the only FINRA designated third party provide (D3P) who has
created a complete solution for 17a-4 data archiving. For one flat monthly fee, we ensure the remote
backup, retention and supervision of all electronic records for 17a-4 with full disaster recovery as part of
the business continuity planning requirements. A complete, turnkey compliance solution - out of the box.

To request a demo of the AdvisorVault solution, click on the link below:

www.advisorvault.org/free-trial-offer

AdvisorVault Contact:
Allan Lonz
President, AdvisorVault
alonz@advisorvault.org
www.advisorvault.org
Direct: 416-985-0310
Toll free: 1-866-732-1407 ext. 1

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Contact Information:
AdvisorVault
Allan Lonz
416-985-0310
Contact via Email
http://www.advisorvault.org
Toll Free: 1-866-732-1407

Online Version of Press Release:

You can read the online version of this press release at: https://www.pr.com/press-release/768596

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