Prospera Praises SunGard's Social Media Surveillance Technology

Around 50 percent of the company's 120 US-based advisors are now using the software, which enables real-time monitoring and archiving of online activity, with a particular emphasis on client communication taking place on social media sites Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Marco Galvan, technology head at Prospera, speaks of his relief at the emergence of a technology that is both compliant with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority's (FINRA) regulations and compatible on remote devices such as smartphones and tablet PCs.

Simply put, he says, Protegent has offered Prospera's clients something that wasn't available 10 months ago.

"I know it sounds a little dry, but it really is quite exciting to be told, 'yes, you can do something', instead of 'no, that's not something you can do'," says Galvan.

"Protegent really is giving our advisors greater flexibility to communicate and promote their business across social networks and leverage that in a very open way - without putting them in too tight a box ─ while still giving our compliance department the visibility to see all client communication, which is necessary to comply with regulation."

Before Protegent, we could do very little of what we can now and our compliance department wasn't 100 percent sure that they were capturing everything, so there was a lot of concern and in most cases our advisers said they'd rather not do social networking because it was just too cumbersome.

Guidelines
FINRA provides strict compliance guidelines for all client communications, mandating that all communication must be archived for a number of years, and this is no different when it comes to online communication, within which social media plays an increasingly important role.

Galvan says that in previous years, Prospera's clients were loath to bother with social networking at all due to the difficulty of ensuring that all such communication was suitably screened.

Galvan describes having to install an application and configure the browser on clients' computers, one by one, while there was simply no option for capturing social media communications taking place on remote devices.

"Before Protegent, we could do very little of what we can now, and our compliance department wasn't 100 percent sure that they were capturing everything, so there was a lot of concern. In most cases our advisers said they'd rather not do social networking because it was just too cumbersome," he explains.

Flexibility
Galvan also highlights the flexibility of the software, which allows both for reviewing comments on a post-review basis ─ meaning compliance checks will take place after comments have been posted ─ and pre-review, which allows for greater security checks to take place if, for example, a new member of staff has joined the team who is less familiar with the myriad regulatory restraints.

And while there is always the danger that the topic of surveillance will sound like a vision from George Orwell's 1984, there can be little doubt that Galvan is glad of the software's impact, which, as he puts it, has "huge potential".

"Most financial advisors are trying to reach out to younger audiences, to help them learn about financial planning and about savings in retirement and really how to be responsible in setting their financial goals," says Galvan. "The tools that the younger population is used to are Facebook and Twitter, and being able to reach out through comfortable means of communication makes it easy to make that initial connection. Like in most industries the key is making that initial connection. So the potential is huge, and it's of high priority to our advisors. They've been asking for it, and finally we can tell them, ‘yes'."

The Bottom Line
• SunGard's Protegent software has been popular with Prospera's clients due to its ability to enable firms to comply with regulation, regardless of the type of device they are using, says technology head Marco Galvan.

• Previously, advisors were unwilling to use social networking due to the cumbersome nature of Prospera's offering, which had no functionality for remote devices.