My friend Dave Bergstein (long-time CPA and industry pundit, as of late with CCH) reminded me earlier this week of discussions he and I have had over the years concerning what we both believe should be a future role for tax and accounting practitioners. We've both been long-time advocates of firms offering private portals to their clients and expanding them to include not only storage of tax and accounting related documents, but all sorts of files, static and dynamic, that one might normally find in a traditional safe deposit box. We've long agreed that the entity that controls this sort of "service" for their client controls the client relationship long-term and that, as accountants, we should capitalize on our role as "trusted advisor".
Well, it seems that others agree --- in the instant case those "others" seem to be none other than Wells Fargo who last week announced the roll out of their vSafe product.
According to their website "Customers can access their Wells Fargo vSafe account from any Internet connection – unlike hard drives,
flash drives and archiving solutions. To meet the needs of each customer, the offering includes:
- The power to store virtually any popular file format (e.g., Word documents, PDFs, Excel spreadsheets, photos, audio and video files).
- An easy-to-use interface and standard folders such as “Medical,” “Legal” and “Family” to organize materials. Customers can add, modify and delete these folders.
- The ability to have Wells Fargo account statements automatically uploaded.
Wells Fargo takes a layered approach to security for all of its online products, and has done the same with the Wells Fargo vSafe service. From the moment account information leaves computers to the time it enters Wells Fargo’s system, all data is encrypted to securely transmit and store it. Optional security devices are available for customers who wish to have an additional layer of security.
Is it too late? No. Will it be soon? Probably.
Sigh.
gll
