Improving RIA compliance with Microsoft Compliance Manager

Improving RIA compliance with Microsoft Compliance Manager

Not all RIA firms have the labor force and resources to focus solely on compliance like large corporations do. That’s why RIAs should be aware of tools like Microsoft 365’s Compliance Manager to help with their compliance needs.

What is Microsoft Compliance Manager?

Compliance Manager is Microsoft’s proprietary compliance management solution that you can access via the Microsoft 365 compliance center. This solution is designed to be an end-to-end service for managing and tracking compliance activities. On your first visit to the portal, Compliance Manager provides you with an initial assessment of your compliance posture, making it an excellent jump-off point for any RIA firm’s compliance journey.

What is the Microsoft Compliance Score?

The Microsoft Compliance Score is a measure of how much progress your RIA has made in completing recommended actions in your Microsoft system to improve data protection and regulatory compliance. It is not an absolute assessment of your total compliance profile, but it helps your firm substantially in meeting industry and legal requirements. Your Compliance Score provides an easy-to-digest snapshot of your RIA company’s compliance profile, so you can easily make adjustments and improvements as necessary.

Related article: Check your RIA’s cloud security score

How do I read my organization’s Compliance Score?

Your Compliance Score is computed via the preventative, detective, and corrective actions your IT service provider has enabled on your Azure’s or 365 Suite’s Compliance Manager. Each action has a pre-assigned score based on its importance (mandatory or discretionary) and their role (preventative, detective, or corrective). The higher your RIA firm’s total score, the better your compliance profile.

Here is a breakdown of the scores for each action type:

Action type Score
Preventative mandatory 27
Preventative discretionary 9
Detective mandatory 3
Detective discretionary 1
Corrective mandatory 3
Corrective discretionary 1

 
Mandatory actions hold higher weight, as they are based on real-world regulatory requirements. Preventative actions also rank highly in terms of Compliance Scores, as they help ensure that your RIA firm is addressing its compliance needs before implementation, thus preventing the need for detection or correction.

How does Compliance Manager help RIAs?

If your system is properly configured with as many preventative mandatory and preventative discretionary actions as possible, there will be little need for detective and corrective actions. This proactive stance should be adopted, as it makes the tedious process of compliance less overwhelming.

Related article: Staying SEC-compliant with Microsoft’s email archiving

It also saves your team the headache of going through painstaking lengths of checking each document and transaction for compliance and completeness. With a properly configured Azure/365 system, they won’t need to scrutinize every step of each file, as the system does it for them. This type of automation is a tried and tested way to eliminate errors and improve compliance for any RIA.

Enhance your RIA’s compliance with Compliance Manager, available with your Microsoft Azure or 365 software. It works best when configured properly — which our highly trained technicians can do for you. Contact us today so we can assess your system and correctly integrate Microsoft Azure or 365.

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