Enterprise cloud computing and customer relationship management platform Salesforce has launched Shield, a solution to assist financial advisors, retirement plan providers and insurance agents to fulfill prevailing and developing industry regulation such as the US Department of Labor’s (DOL) Fiduciary Rule.
Salesforce will team up with Deloitte to spread the reach of the offering with joint support, training and other expertise.
Shield is integrated with the capabilities of Financial Services Cloud that provides firms the knack to capture client interactions and provide their compliance departments with visibility into communications between clients, advisors, agents and teams. Due to regulatory changes, the financial services industry is pushing its professional to be more transparent when it comes to managing their clients’ investments and finances. Recently, the DOL released its fiduciary rule, which requires fiduciaries, such as financial advisors and insurance agents, to make investment recommendations in the best interests of their clients.
Rohit Mahna, GM of Financial Services, Salesforce said, “At Salesforce, our business is based on helping companies connect with their customers in entirely new ways, including helping advisors to act in the best interest of their clients. The opportunity has never been greater for financial services firms to transform and engage with clients in a deeper way.”
Companies using Shield have the ability to:
Complete client view: Advisors can gain panoramic views of clients and their extended networks, the ability to access information such as a client’s other investments, financial circumstances, tax status and life goals provides advisors with the information they need to understand each client’s specific needs and make recommendations accordingly.
Due-diligence reviews: Financial Services Cloud also enables advisors to capture decisions and the basis for those decisions in digital records. This real-time information helps assist advisors and their firms in the standardization of due-diligence reviews.
Gain visibility into activity and usage: Using Shield’s Event Monitoring capability, businesses can identify who is accessing what kind of data and from where. This allows auditors or compliance experts within financial firms to see if users are printing pages, editing records and more.
Create and record communications: Communication through any channel can be retained in the Notes feature and maintained with other client information as evidence that clients are appropriately identified and assisted.
Protect records: Platform Encryption lets businesses encrypt their most sensitive data while preserving important business functionality and data at rest, such as standard and custom fields, files, and attachments.
Sean Cunniff, Specialist Leader, Deloitte stated, “To comply with the DOL regulation, the financial industry will need to implement substantial changes in how they interact with clients. Salesforce’s solution will help financial services firms accelerate readiness for complying with the rule, while providing personalized advice, encouraging collaboration, and increasing advisor efficiency, all in a scalable and documented manner. We are thrilled to collaborate with Salesforce on this initiative.”