Let’s face it, the coronavirus pandemic has fundamentally changed the way we do business. Most of our industry is working from home, learning to balance conference calls and kids with questions that just can’t wait or dogs that must bark while on a Zoom meeting. We’ve all been there and have our moments.
Other things have changed as well, especially when it comes to marketing and advertising. This is especially true for financial advisors who have lost the ability to connect with clients at events, lunches, in office or at home meetings or simple introductions that come from face-to-face interactions. or years, many advisor’s businesses have primarily depended on these methods to connect with current clients and meet new prospects. Social distancing and stay at home orders have eliminated these options for many advisors who are now exploring new options to prospect and connect with people. So where are they turning? Like everyone else, advisors are turning to technology to increase their online presence with updated profiles while sharing fresh and timely content. I recently spoke to some of our clients about trends they were seeing regarding their advisor’s marketing and advertising behaviors since social distancing and stay home orders began. One compliance manager told me his firm has seen a 30% increase in advertising submissions as well as a significant increase in the use of approved social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Another client told me, “Advisors have ‘downtime’ and are now thinking a lot about marketing.” I followed up on how things have changed for our client as a result. “Don’t get me started on how much social media usage has jumped since this all began!” They have seen an increase of 25% to 30% in usage and a surge in new accounts being created by their advisors. Social Media usage is certainly on the rise. A recent survey showed that 32% of Americans said they have increased the amount of time they are using social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. Another firm told me that advisors who have typically shied away from social media, online profiles, websites, and other marketing technologies are now diving in for the first time. I was told, “Their (advisors) traditional lead generation tools aren’t available anymore. They now have time and are focusing on new ways to build their business.” Additionally, our clients are seeing a big increase in advertising submissions for recordings from Zoom/online meetings. Advisors are continually seeking guidance on additional options for communicating and marketing to the public. This all presents an increasing challenge in supervision and compliance, especially when there are growing limitations on human resources. That’s where our Eagle Eye technology comes in. Eagle Eye helps our clients uncover their advisors’ web presence, locating social media accounts, websites, articles, profiles, videos, OBA’s and more. Eagle Eye creates automated documentation of what has been reviewed, who did the review, and what the website looked like at the time of review, giving our clients and regulators a complete picture of the process. They use our system to discover and “clean up” situations where the use of these sites was done without approvals or monitoring in place. Another one of our clients shared with us that, “Thanks to Eagle Eye, it is helping me identify and address issues before they are brought to my attention by a regulator.” With our industry evolving, SiteQuest Compliance is a preferred partner when it comes to internet supervision and website management. Contact us today for your personalized demo where we can discuss your supervision concerns and see for yourself how Eagle Eye can support your internet supervision requirements. 4/20/2020
AUTOMATED SUPERVISION: HOW ONE FIRM UNCOVERED COMPLIANCE RISKS THAT WERE PREVIOUSLY UNDETECTEDWe often speak with firms that use search engines like Bing and Google to assist them with the manual supervision processes.
One such firm recently added Eagle Eye to their supervision processes and quickly discovered immediate returns on their investment within the first three months of its use. What was that immediate benefit? Reduction of risk. Now that wasn’t the only benefit, as they saved a lot time as they went through the process. In fact, prior to using Eagle Eye they would often struggle to complete their supervision checks before the end of the quarter and would have to rush during the last two weeks of the period to get it all done. With Eagle Eye, they finished everything with three or four weeks to spare. But back to our original point, how did they reduce their risk? Our client not only found the process easy, but more importantly, they uncovered previously unknown compliance risks that were routinely missed by their manual search processes. Their new set up with Eagle Eye allowed them to scan the web in a manner unlike any they had previously experienced. With Eagle Eye’s multi-data point scanning capabilities, this client unleashed a virtual army of web crawlers who scoured the web with dozens and dozens of powerful queries. Then Eagle Eye analyzed all of the possible results for each monitored individual and presented the most relevant findings for their review. Our client not only found the process easy, but more importantly, they uncovered previously unknown compliance risks that were routinely missed by their manual search processes. With the revelations of these new regulator risks, our client was able take immediate action and take care of the issue prior to a regulatory event. The astounding part of the story is that our client was able to accomplish all of this without having to review hundreds and hundreds of results for each monitored individual or firm. In fact, they were able to do so by reviewing just 20 results per monitored individual during their quarterly review. So the big question looms, what are you missing on your manual searches and can you continue to allow those risks to go unnoticed and unchecked? A company from Virginia was expelled from FINRA membership for several violations. Some of the FINRA findings included; “That the firm included issuer communications on its website that it knew or had reason to know contained untrue statements of material facts or were otherwise false or misleading.” If a claim is filed against your company for posting statements on your website that the claimant said is misleading or untrue, are you able to defend your company? Do you have the documentation and reports to support your response? Our SQWatcher application is a web-based tool that not only archives your website, but also analyzes it each day. SQWatcher creates readily accessible backup files that can be easily retrieved to immediately identify and fix something that could have gone wrong. It’s also important to note that unlike other archival systems that may only take a screenshot to show you what the website “looked like” in the past, SQWatcher collects the actual HTML code for every page on your clients’ website(s). This provides the ability to not only view the page in question, but also browse the rest of the site as it appeared in the past as part of your review process. Are you responsible for monitoring one or more websites for your company? This can become a daunting task for any financial supervisor with the continual changes and updates. Are you notified when website information is updated so that you can review and ensure that the changes made online are correct? SQWatcher has taken this into account so that you are automatically notified. This same Virginia firm was also cited by FINRA for “not reasonably supervising its activities of those of its associated persons.” Our Eagle Eye product is the first of its kind application that is designed specifically to help the financial industry easily and effectively supervise the web. Eagle Eye automatically searches, documents, and reports on your web supervision responsibilities so you have everything you need to find and address issues before they are brought to your attention by a regulator.
Eagle Eye and SQWatcher working together are a force multiplier in your supervisory scheme. The cost of these applications are just a fraction of the cost a fine. Working in the finance industry for over 15 years SiteQuest Technologies is an innovative partnership for your firm. We work closely with your supervision departments making sure that our products are continually evolving and optimized with your concerns in mind. Contact us today to see how we can assist you in your web supervision needs. |
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6/1/2020