The move by Modern Wealth Management is an example of how RIAs, faced by mounting cybersecurity threats, must address protecting themselves in scalable ways if they lack in-house IT capabilities.

Visory, a cybersecurity and compliance firm, has deployed its SecureCompliance™ platform at Modern Wealth Management, a firm managing over $7.5 billion in assets.

The new platform offers the benefits of a virtual chief information security officer (vCISO) at a fraction of the cost, Visory said in a statement this week. 

As cybersecurity threats grow more sophisticated, even high-performing firms can struggle to scale their defenses, Visory said. 

As holders of trillions of dollars in wealth, RIAs, family offices, private banks, trusts and fiduciary services firms are in the firing line of hackers and those seeking to extract money via ransomware and other routes. On June 11, at BNY offices in Manhattan, Family Wealth Report is holding a cybersecurity conference exploring such issues. As reported here, a survey by Deloitte, the accountancy and professional services giant, found that almost half (43 per cent) of family offices around the world – a sector estimated to hold more than $3 trillion in total AuM – have suffered a cyber attack in the past two years.

Modern Wealth, with more than 180 employees and 6,700 clients, said it needed a cybersecurity program but lacked in-house IT or security expertise. 

"SecureCompliance was very convenient, very timely, and it has been working out pretty well. It provided a lot of transparency on how we're doing, where we have gaps, and where we need to focus our attention," Mike Capelle, co-founder and co-CEO, Modern Wealth, said.