CEO of Melia Advisory Group, which manages over $65 million in assets and uses RMail services.
Importance of Registered Email™ Certified Email Proof of Delivery
The importance of receipt tracking and communication archiving is often taken for granted, but
something as simple as
keeping track of who said what and when, and whether or not an email was actually received or
got stuck somewhere en
route are still very common issues even to this day. Part of the compliance issues that
financial firms run into is
accurate archiving of financial data and client communication. But, an archive of what you claim
to have sent is an
incomplete record – Registered Email technology provides the verifiable record of what was sent
and in fact received,
and precisely when. RMail services are built upon this Registered Email technology. So for more
substantive and
time-sensitive email communication—often times with valuable information and documents
involved—confirmed records of
when and what was actually received by the recipient can make all the difference in the world,
particularly if any
dispute arises in the future.
But financial firms needing to stay in compliance of stringent data security and archival
requirements set by numerous
regulatory agencies face a tough balancing act. Adding layers to any process, especially those
involving unfamiliar or
burdensome technology raises a host of other challenges.
With RMail, we made sure that it operates in line with how you’re already doing email. We have
plugins for Gmail,
Outlook, mobile devices and others, so it runs natively within your existing email environment.
People don’t have to go
to a third-party website, upload files and documents and the receivers don’t need to go through
hoops and hurdles to
retrieve. It runs in line and doesn’t change the beautiful ubiquity of the way email operates.
Bottom line, the technology has to be simple or people won’t use it, and that can make all the difference in the world.
The most important thing is the concept of simplicity. If it’s not simple, if it introduces even a tiny bit of complexity, then the system may be circumvented. The systems won’t be used, and as a result, you have risk. If it’s not simple enough, no matter how secure it is, it just won’t be used. So it’s really about product design and making sure that you don’t lose sight of the need for simplicity alongside the need for adequate security. For us, the need for simplicity always has to be on top.
RMail specializes in security and compliance with its top-rated email encryption, auditable proof of privacy compliance, secure large file sending, and certified e-delivery services.
RMail runs elegantly inside Microsoft Outlook and Office 365, Gmail, and web
browsers, providing one-click options for accounting professionals and their staff
to add simple to use
security, encryption, and certified email services to their normal workflow.
RMail Customers with a Microsoft email offering with Office 365 (e.g. E3 or E5) choose RMail
for its email encryption
because of the elegant user experience, especially for the recipient, and for the Registered
Receipt proof of compliance
and tracking record.
Some of the most popular services for investment advisors are:
Email encryption for privacy compliance automatically delivers email in a
unique way to each recipient, creating the simplest user
experience for the recipient while returning auditable proof of privacy and compliance to the
sender– going far beyond basic
TLS and link-retrieval systems. RMail includes different levels of encryption for when it is
important to keep messages
private from the recipient’s email administrator or email systems like Gmail, and others who may
otherwise have
access to their email.
RMail transmission encryption is most popular among investment advisory professionals when
communicating financial
statements, investment disclosures, tax information and other financial data that is
strategic to the client. RMail
message-level encryption is most popular when communicating confidential financial
information that is very sensitive
that the client might not want email administrators or others in the company to have access
to.
Registered Email™ certified e-delivery tracking and proof with optional
encryption provides advanced open and delivery tracking and proof, with timestamped proof of original
content legally delivered. It returns to the sender a court-admissible timestamped Registered Receipt email without requiring
any action or setting at the recipient level.
Registered Email proof is most popular when a sending accounting professional wants
audit-ready proof of timestamped
content delivered, when submitting disclosures, opinions, or deadline information of
consequence.
Registered Email proof with encryption is most popular when the sender wants audit-ready
proof of fact of encrypted,
privacy compliant delivery.
RMail Secure File Share One-Time-Box™
— RMail provides privacy compliant secure file sharing. Senders can easily attach and track up
to 1GB of files from
Outlook or the RMail Web app and send them securely to any recipient with encryption and
configurable self-purging
options (from 1 to 90 days) in a one-time online storage box that eliminates the risk of
download recipients being able
to see the sender’s cloud storage file structure.
RMail Secure File Sharing is most popular when sending accounting files, QuickBooks files,
tax preparation, and
pre-audit and financial review files.
RSign® eSignatures
are the simplest to use, most affordable full featured web-based electronic signature service.
RSign makes it easy for
signers to complete and sign documents using any desktop or mobile web browser in an intuitive,
guided signing process.
RSign is the easiest way to obtain client signatures on tax statements, eSign
verifications, and other information
filled into forms sent by email or posted on websites, with the completed form compiled as a
PDF record and with options
to automatically back-fill form data into the accounting information management system.
RMail Gateway Secure Send™
makes it easy to automate and ensure HIPAA and PII compliant and auditable encrypted email in
all outbound email or for
certain messages based on message content, senders, recipients, or patterns inside messages.
RMail Gateway is popular among IT staff as a simple way to automate encryption from certain
senders, to certain
recipient domains, based on message content or content patterns like client personal social
security and financial
statement related numbers, or by adding a “#” or another indicator in the subject of mobile
device email.
Right Recipient™
reduces risk of sending an email to the wrong person based on Outlook auto-complete address
functions. Right Recipient
provides an extra check to prevent inadvertent emails being sent to similar names and while
checking the address,
recommends other options such as encrypting email.
Right Recipient is useful all professions that send critical client information to external
parties; in particular those
using Outlook address auto-complete functions. This service is provided in partnership with
cleanDocs from DocsCorp.
Founder of RightSize Solutions, which provides IT support and cloud application hosting services for the financial industry. Right Size, which serves RIAs in the range of $300 million and up.
“The stakes are very, very high. RIAs have access to a wide variety of accounts and information,
as well as control over
those accounts. So you’re not only protecting private information such as social security
numbers and things of that
nature, but the access to these accounts are truly the key. If someone gained access to one of
the custodians and/or
trading accounts, as an example, all kinds of havoc could be wreaked across their portfolio.
It’s becoming very
sophisticated and very targeted. Once a criminal has targeted an organization, they’re going to
pound that organization
until they find out how to get into the system that they want. Today, we’re close to 80%
adoption for clients using
RMail in a very short amount of time. There is a growing awareness of communication even from
the RIA’s employees. You
may have processes and policies in place for all your employees to follow, but not everybody
remembers to do that with
every email and every communication. So this is just a safe, secure way to do this,” adds
Stillman of RightSize Solutions.
“The ability to track your records is so important for a financial advisor because as an RIA,
the SEC can come in and
audit my records and ask me to produce all the information and communication I had with my
clients. So, I need to keep
track of that, and a service like RMail allows me to track when communication was delivered to
and received by the
client. I can show that I’m using RMail encryption services so the clients’ information is
protected, which is something
you also have to present to regulators to show that you are doing everything you can to protect
the clients’
confidential information. Obviously, you’re dealing with very sensitive information and you have
to protect that to the
best of your abilities,” adds David Hamer, President and Owner of Integrity Asset
Management,
which provides asset
management and financial planning services to individual investors.
“RMail is easy to integrate, provides state-of-the-art technology, and it makes it easy to
encrypt email; importantly
encrypting email in a way that automatically provides audit-ready proof of GDPR compliance on a
message-by-message basis
for the transfer of personal data,” adds Kemal Webersohn, CEO of WS-Datenschutz
GmbH, Berlin,
Germany. “Recipients’
acceptance and the simplicity in communicating with third parties have convinced us to use RMail
extensively in our
company.”
Nick Hawke, Chief Executive Officer, Association of Professional Compliance
Consultants (APCC),
in the Foreword of the
report, remarked, “This paper marks a significant contribution to the GDPR compliance debate, by
providing a robust
assessment of the concerns and a powerful methodology to guide practical compliance. It also
offers useful parameters
that an organization should consider in its selection of an appropriate solution and a
perspective on several of the
leading offerings.” The report states that GDPR defines what is to be achieved rather than how
the requirements should
be fulfilled. Consequently, it does not state a requirement to use a specific method of
encrypting email, but it does
require the handler of consumer non-public and personal information to maintain not only privacy
of that information,
but also the ability to demonstrate compliance with the privacy requirements. These requirements
are discussed in detail
in GDPR Article 5 Clause 1(f) and 2, and Article 32 Clause 1(a) and 1(d) which focus on the
requirement to protect
personal data during transmission with the ability to demonstrate fact of protection of personal
data. (Guide available
upon request.)
SEC and State Securities compliance, and compliance with regulators in other countries. RMail Registered Email™ service proves compliance with notification, privacy, and records retention requirements. RMail® email encryption and secure file sharing, and RSign e-signatures provide simple to use and automated privacy for compliance with privacy standards internationally, including GDPR, and other state and country regulations protecting personal private information.