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North American Investment Firm Enables Clients to Securely Share Sensitive Tax Documents with External CPAs
Technology Category
- Cybersecurity & Privacy - Identity & Authentication Management
- Cybersecurity & Privacy - Security Compliance
- Cybersecurity & Privacy - Cloud Security
Applicable Industries
- Finance & Insurance
Applicable Functions
- Business Operation
- Sales & Marketing
Services
- System Integration
- Cybersecurity Services
The Challenge
As an investment firm, this company is required to generate and send 1099 tax forms to its American clients each year. These forms are used to report additional earned income, including that from investments and interest payments. Since many of this firm’s clients hire Certified Public Accountants (CPAs) to prepare their taxes, these forms must first be shared by the firm with its clients and then by the clients with their CPAs. A key challenge the firm has faced is that these 1099 forms, which contain sensitive personal and financial data, must be handled with the highest degree of security. In the past, once these forms were generated in January each year, the firm would mail the forms to its clients since electronic means of file sharing were considered too risky and insecure. Clients, in turn, would mail or physically deliver these forms to their external CPAs. This highly manual process was costly and inefficient for both the firm and its clients. The firm’s IT team began searching for an easier, more secure way to send these sensitive tax documents to their clients and to enable their clients to share these tax documents with their external CPAs.
About The Customer
This North American investment firm boasts over 11,000 financial advisors and 7 million clients. With a commitment to client satisfaction, the firm strives to make the best long-term decisions for its clients, both from the investment side and the client services side. As such, the firm’s IT team is committed to implementing tools that make it as easy as possible for clients to access their accounts, engage with their financial advisors and share sensitive financial information with external tax advisors.
The Solution
With CyberArk’s Sensitive Information Management Solution, Bill was able to leverage his existing technology investments to enable clients to securely view their sensitive documents online and to share those documents with trusted parties, such as CPAs. CyberArk’s Sensitive Information Management Solution provides a scalable, easy-to-use file sharing portal, and it leverages military-grade encryption and strict access controls to protect these sensitive documents. With the Sensitive Information Management Solution, this investment firm was able to quickly and easily enable sensitive document sharing without having to worry about unauthorized access. Further, because the Sensitive Information Management Solution leverages the CyberArk Shared Technology Platform – the same underlying technology platform used by the Enterprise Password Vault – this customer was able to simply add on the new file sharing capability without having to make any changes to its existing infrastructure. “We were able to set up a secure chain of trust between us, our clients, and their trusted advisors, with almost no effort on our part” said Bill. Now, with CyberArk’s Sensitive Information Management Solution, the firm’s clients are able to easily and securely access their own documents and tax forms online, and the clients can also invite trusted parties to view and access these documents. When tax season comes, clients each login to their own unique portal, view their documents and have the option to securely share their tax documents with trusted parties. Using this system, clients can simply invite their CPAs to access the 1099 tax forms, and their CPAs will receive an automated email with simple instructions on how to proceed.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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