IT support for RIAs and wealth management firms in Wisconsin
An advisory firm runs on trust and records. Client meetings cannot wait for a laptop to cooperate, and a books and records request is not the moment to find out whether your archiving actually works.
We support the environment your custodial, portfolio, planning, and CRM platforms depend on, for firms from West Bend and Mequon to Brookfield and downtown Milwaukee. Local people, documented controls, and evidence that exists before anyone asks.
What actually breaks in an advisory firm
These are the issues we see most from advisory practices, and most of them never appear on a generic IT company's service list.
Email retention that nobody can prove
Books and records rules expect retained, searchable, tamper-resistant communications. Plenty of firms have a mailbox and an assumption. We put real archiving in place and confirm that a search actually returns what an examiner would ask for.
Advisors texting and messaging clients off-channel
Off-channel communication is one of the most common findings in this industry. We work with your compliance lead to define approved channels, then make the approved path convenient enough that people use it.
Custodian and portfolio platform access that breaks quietly
Access to custodial portals, portfolio accounting, planning tools, and the CRM depends on identity, browser posture, MFA tokens, and network reliability. When one changes, an advisor loses a morning. We manage those dependencies rather than react to them.
Advisors working from anywhere on whatever device is nearby
Home offices, client sites, and airports. We enforce encryption, MFA, and managed device standards so remote work does not become an unmanaged endpoint holding client account data.
Wire fraud and impersonation attempts aimed at your operations staff
Client account changes and disbursement requests are the target. We harden email authentication, flag external and lookalike senders, and support your written verification process with technical controls.
No usable documentation when diligence arrives
New custodians, acquiring firms, insurance carriers, and examiners all ask the same questions. We keep an inventory, a network diagram, an access list, and written backup test results so answering takes an afternoon.
How support works day to day
- One number and one email for the whole firm, answered by people in West Bend
- Priority handling for anything that blocks trading, planning, or client meetings
- Monitoring and patching scheduled off-hours across every workstation and server
- A documented environment, so any of our engineers can pick up a ticket without starting over
- Verified backups of the systems you control, tested on a schedule rather than assumed
- A quarterly review of open risks, aging hardware, and what needs budget next year
Every firm we support gets the same fully loaded managed environment. We do not run tiers, because a one-off environment is the thing that makes support slow when it matters.
Books and records, in technical terms
Regulators do not hand you a product list. Your CCO or compliance consultant owns the policy; our job is to make the controls real and produce the evidence. Practically, that means:
- Email and communications archiving aligned to SEC Rule 17a-4 and FINRA retention expectations
- Multi-factor authentication on email, remote access, and administrative accounts
- Encryption enforced on laptops and workstations rather than requested
- Role-based access, with reviews tied to your actual staff roster
- Audit logging and retention that supports supervision and examination requests
- Written incident response and business continuity documentation you can produce on request
We do not promise you will never be attacked, and we do not offer regulatory interpretation. We do make sure the archiving searches return real results, the backups are tested, and the documentation exists. For the wider program work, see our compliance services.
Wire fraud is aimed at your operations staff
The attack that actually costs advisory firms money is rarely exotic. It is a convincing email from a client asking to move funds to a new account, sent from a lookalike domain or a compromised mailbox, timed for a Friday afternoon.
We harden the email path with authentication records, external and lookalike sender warnings, mailbox rule monitoring, and MFA that resists the common bypasses. Then we support your written callback and verification process, because the technical controls exist to give a human the chance to catch it.
Staff training is part of this rather than an afterthought. See our security awareness training for how we run it.
Why advisory firms call us about their current IT
- Their provider has no idea what a books and records request looks like
- Archiving was set up years ago and has never been tested with a real search
- Nobody has produced an inventory, a network diagram, or a written backup test result
- A custodian or platform change broke advisor access and took days to sort out
- The firm added advisors or an office and the environment never caught up
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you work with RIAs, broker-dealers, and wealth management firms?
Yes. We support registered investment advisors, broker-dealer branch offices, wealth managers, and financial planning practices across southeastern Wisconsin, from solo advisors to multi-office firms.
Can you handle email archiving for SEC and FINRA retention?
Yes. We implement archiving with tamper-resistant storage and search that your compliance lead can actually use, then verify that a sample request returns complete results. Archiving that has never been tested is not archiving.
Do you provide compliance advice?
No. Your compliance consultant or CCO owns interpretation. We build and document the technical controls that support their policies, and we produce the evidence when someone asks for it.
How do you help with off-channel communication risk?
We work from your written policy: approved channels get provisioned, archived, and made convenient, and unapproved paths get discouraged through configuration where the platform allows it. The policy stays yours; we make it enforceable in practice.
Can you support access to our custodian and portfolio platforms?
We support the environment those platforms depend on: identity and MFA, browser and device posture, network and circuit reliability, printing, and secure document exchange. When the issue sits inside the vendor's platform, we open and drive the ticket with them.
What happens if we are acquired or change custodians?
We handle the technical side of the transition: identity and mailbox changes, data migration and retention of the old records, access provisioning at the new platform, and documentation of what moved and when.
Do we need to sign a long-term contract?
Yes. Our standard managed IT agreement is 36 months. Onboarding is a significant up-front investment in documentation, tuning, and hardening, so a longer term lets both sides realize the value. Project work and emergency help do not require an agreement.
What areas of Wisconsin do you cover?
We are based at 419 S. Main St in West Bend and support firms across Washington, Ozaukee, Waukesha, Dodge, Fond du Lac, and Sheboygan counties, plus the greater Milwaukee metro.
Start with a firm IT assessment
A paid engagement that inventories your devices, reviews your security and backup posture, tests whether your archiving returns what it should, and returns a prioritized plan. You keep the findings whether or not you hire us.