Morgan Stanley Rolls Out Digital Vault
Its advisors and clients can share and store encrypted documents, like financial statements, on Box's cloud-based platform.
Morgan Stanley is letting investors and advisors share encrypted documents on a platform managed by cloud data firm Box.
The digital vault can be used to share and store financial statements, tax filings, wills, deeds and estate plans, for instance. The service aims to provide clients with more security than is now available for emails they exchange with advisors, according to the wirehouse, and includes Box Platform, Box KeySafe and Box Governance technologies.
“Adopting new technologies to enhance and improve the way we deliver information to our clients and foster communication between advisor teams and clients is incredibly important for wealth management — especially in this increasingly digital world,” Chief Digital Officer Naureen Hassan said in a statement.
The client document uploading service and portal is available on Morgan Stanley Online and the Morgan Stanley Mobile App.
“Box empowers our clients to collaborate with their Financial Advisers seamlessly while adhering to the highest standards of data privacy, protection and security,” according to Sal Cucchiara, chief information officer for wealth management at Morgan Stanley.
The news comes several days after Morgan Stanley announced its second-quarter earnings.
In the period, the wealth unit — which includes 15,633 advisors — grew net income 9% year over year to $953 million and sales 2% to $4.41 billion. The firm, though, reported that its total profits fell 10% to $2.2 billion, or $1.23 per share, as revenues dropped 3% to $10.2 billion.
With Box, Morgan Stanley … [is] providing clients and … employees with better access to information, and ultimately driving more efficiency and collaboration,” Box CEO Aaron Levie explained in a statement.
Earlier this year Morgan Stanley introduced a savings program — similar to that of robo-advisors Betterment and Wealthfront — which pays 2.30% a year for new cash deposits made by wealth clients. It runs through Aug. 2.
— Check out Morgan Stanley to Pay $3.3M Over Puerto Rican Bonds on ThinkAdvisor.