How Pontera protects retirement savers

 

Our Client Cyber Protection Pledge

Pontera understands that protecting the retirement saver’s financial wellbeing is of critical importance; it is core to our mission. When retirement savers connect their accounts to Pontera, they can be confident that:

  • We stand behind retirement savers. In the unlikely event that a financial loss arises due to unauthorized activity relating to use of the Pontera platform, and has occurred through no fault of the retirement saver or their authorized financial advisor, Pontera will reimburse that loss.

  • Security is our priority. Pontera utilizes the latest advanced cybersecurity and data protection technologies to keep financial account information safe and secure. We devote extensive and expert resources to cybersecurity and are insured against security breaches.

 

About third-party connection to financial accounts

Retirement savers have a growing need for advisory services and tools to help them budget, bank, and invest across all their financial accounts. To enable this, many retirement savers connect their accounts to a third-party technology. Unfortunately, some financial institutions maintain terms of service that subsequently may limit liability coverage for the connected accounts. 

Our goal is to ensure that retirement savers are able to receive the advice and support they need while their accounts remain secure and protected. When a financial advisor leverages Pontera to manage client accounts, the retirement saver benefits from:

  • Secure credential storage: The retirement saver’s account credentials are encrypted and stored in a secure location. We only store account credentials to make updates when needed. Even the financial advisor cannot access the retirement saver’s credentials through Pontera.

  • Multiple levels of monitoring: When a retirement saver connects an account to Pontera, they are providing their trusted advisor with the ability to monitor accounts on their behalf. This second set of eyes may increase the likelihood of any changes or suspicious activities being quickly noticed and acted upon.

  • Air-gapped access: While Pontera enables an advisor to monitor and manage retirement saver accounts, the advisor will not be able to request distributions or change beneficiaries on the financial accounts. This means that the retirement saver’s assets will not be exposed should the advisor’s Pontera credentials become compromised.

 

About Pontera’s cybersecurity protocols

Pontera has a highly experienced cyber protection team dedicated to platform security, integrity and quality assurance. We have spent over a decade facilitating held away account management for investors, advisors and financial institutions. Pontera maintains SOC 2 certification for our data security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality and privacy organizational controls. We use strict access controls, employ multiple layers of cybersecurity protections, conduct regular penetration testing, and ensure data is encrypted in transit and at rest, meeting the Advanced Encryption Standard.