Aurmis FAQs
General
We specialize in Independent Financial Advisors, RIAs, wealth management firms, CPAs, and tax advisors.
Yes. Our technology and security services are designed to support compliance (e.g. data protection, secure client data, audit trails). However, we do not provide legal or regulatory advice; you’d still work with your compliance/legal team.
There are a lot of businesses that work in silos. Certainly, there are plenty of IT management companies, fractional executives or consultants, web design companies, branding firms, SEO firms, or marketing agencies. Rarely are all these services offered from one company alone — even more so from a company that has over a decade of experience working with financial professionals like you.
Aurmis has been serving financial advisors for over 10 years. From breakaway advisors to established financial advisory firms, we’ve established ourselves nationwide as a single solution to most of the necessary services a modern financial firm needs to securely operate and grow.
Yes, happy to connect you with current clients, but the best reference depends on a few things about your firm like type (RIA, broker-dealer affiliated, CPA/tax practice), size/AUM, growth stage, and which services you’re most interested in. Once we know more about your firm, we can introduce you to a client in a similar situation so the conversation is actually relevant.
After the intro call, we take time to understand your firm’s growth stage and the specific services you need. From there, we build a roadmap with you and your team, with clear deadlines to keep everything on track.
Timing varies based on scope. As a benchmark, we’ve helped breakaway advisors launch a full suite of services, including new brand identity, website, branded stationery and print materials, Microsoft Office setup, email, network management, security and backup, workplace technology buildout, and system integrations, in just under two months. In short, our speed is driven by your needs, not the other way around.
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IT Support Management
We adhere to industry best practices: encryption, secure remote access, regular audits, vulnerability scanning, monitoring, incident response planning, etc. (We can supply more detailed security protocols on request.)
The Aurmis Service Suite has evolved to include solutions that we have tested over time. Many platforms offer too much or too little, so we’ve balanced them specifically for financial services. For more information, please reach out.
Our policies, procedures, and reporting have been through many SEC examinations, discoveries and legal requests. We have evolved the suite and services specifically around compliance.
SLAs are based on contract agreements. Aurmis provides 24/7 email support. Aurmis uses management software that provides 24/7 monitoring.
RTO and RPO vary by need. We have designed services that support exactly what a high demand financial firm would need and focus on cloud-based solutions.
We negotiate all contracts both new and existing. Typically we transition the contracts to Aurmis, and then you no longer have to worry about them.
The only items we pass through to clients are hardware services or specific services our clients want to keep in-house. Aurmis suites use an all-inclusive approach, and our invoices are itemized to allow you to see what is being passed through.
Pricing varies by firm size, and complexity. No two financial firms are exactly alike. For a specific quote we have a pre-meeting survey that will allow us to put together what your Aurmis suite will look like in just a couple days.
Fractional CTO / CISO
Many advisory firms don’t need or can’t justify a full-time technology/security executive. We provide leadership, oversight, and strategy on a flexible basis at a much lower cost.
The support team has over a decade of experience in the Financial services industry and our leadership team have 25+ years of experience each. We are Microsoft Partners and carry too many certifications to list here. If you’d like to get specifics, please reach out and we can provide more details.
Aurmis suites are fixed fee monthly price. If we have a project that is out of scope, it’s rare, and we would put together an additional statement of work for that with detailed estimates.
We are your Officer when it comes to Cybersecurity and Technology. So any regulatory activity involving your firm would have onsite representation to answer all of these inquiries.
Aurmis policies and procedures provide detailed Incident Response Plans and training. These define and dictate the process for just about every scenario. We have evolved these and can share some fun stories if you’d like to hear more about how this all works.
Yes. We have AI-based constant monitoring of endpoints, and provide bi-annual testing for cybersecurity. We also provide all quarterly reports for asset management, patch management, and antivirus updates.
Financial Websites
Most financial advisory websites take two to three months from kickoff to launch. The exact timeline depends on the number of pages, how quickly we develop your site copy and content together, and whether you need custom features like financial calculators or CRM integrations. We’re always happy to move at whatever pace works best for you.
Breaking away and short on time? Advisors going independent often have only a few weeks before their transition date. In those cases, we’ll launch a streamlined version of your site so you’re up and running on day one, then build out the full site afterward.
All websites are built to be SEC/FINRA compliant. We have been examined many times over the last decade with no penalties or issues.
We manage all of our websites with compliance in mind. This includes updating disclosures, ADV linking, and archiving of the websites. We have strong relationships with external CCO firms and can help with referrals and our experiences if you’d like.
You own the site, domain, and code. We simply maintain and manage it on your behalf.
Unlike closed-platform providers such as Snappy Kraken or FMG, our websites are built on WordPress. That means your site isn’t locked into proprietary boundaries, so if you ever decide to end your contract, you won’t have to start over with a brand new website.
The Aurmis Financial Website Suite is a fixed fee contract. It includes all of the solutions listed on our service details page. This includes maintenance on the site.
We can integrate with just about every platform on the Tech Road Map for Financial Services with experience across just about every solution in the industry. If you have a specific service in mind, reach out and we can share our approach.
SEO, GEO, and AEO
Traffic results are straightforward to measure and report. Lead volume and AUM growth are harder to attribute with precision, since they depend on factors outside our control, like whether a firm consistently asks new prospects “how did you hear about us” and whether the firm successfully converts and onboards those prospects as clients.
With that context, here’s recent data from one of our breakaway RIA clients.
Site traffic grew 169% over the past two years.
Before enrolling in our SEO Visibility package, the firm’s monthly compound growth rate (CMGR) for site visitors was 4.45%. After implementation, that rate accelerated to 7.85% per month.
In August alone, the firm confirmed three prospects came directly from AI platforms like ChatGPT and Claude, a direct result of our SEO Visibility work.
We have worked alongside financial advisors and compliance officers for over 10 years, so we have a strong working knowledge of what messaging generally is and isn’t allowed. That said, true compliance ultimately requires collaboration with your firm’s compliance officer, and we work closely with them throughout the process to make sure every piece of content and every campaign meets your specific requirements.
Yes. All of our marketing materials (digital or print) are archived and will be available for any compliance review.
Branding
As you can imagine, this can vary quite a bit. Aurmis clients have taken 30-45 days, and some go as long as 3-4 months. The longer engagements usually involve Brand Naming development and acquiring a solid website domain, but generally it all depends on how deep the brand needs to go, and of course making decisions. Branding has been a very personal process for some of our clients.
Since the Aurmis Brand Identity suite is fixed fee, we don’t really limit revisions. Typically, we have a first round of maybe 10 or so possible brands, then narrow down to a top 3-5 list and build more detail into those to get down to a final decision.
AI Solutions
The Aurmis tools that leverage AI focus on the Financial Website suite and the Cybersecurity & Technology components of our suites. We do not typically access client data for any of those. An AI policy is included focused on management, training, and integration across the many AI solutions in Financial Services tools out there.
All Aurmis suites are Reg S-P and regulatory compliant. We have specific solutions for Reg S-P. That is a core differentiator.
Pricing & Contracts
The Aurmis suites are fixed fee, for a fixed term with auto-renewal. We do not have large upfront project costs, and most of our clients really appreciate that.
This is pretty standard. We requires a 30-day ahead notice prior to the term end. We also only renew for 1-year, where our initial contracts are typically 2 years.
Typically, our Aurmis clients bundle the IT Support Management, Fractional CTO/CISO, Financial Website, and Brand Identity suites at first. Then they will add-on the Marketing and SEO suites if they want to get more aggressive with marketing and SEO/GEO.
All of your data is your data. We do not keep anything.