Taffrail has built an API that brokerages and banks integrate into their existing apps to provide their clients with compliant recommendations and guidance.
As investors adopt passive investing strategies, they need help from their brokers to open the right accounts, pick the right asset allocation, and to find low cost index funds.
Investors need help with specific questions, but they also are looking for recommendations of what they should be working on next.
Brokers believe that as soon as they personalize a generic recommendation, they trigger the requirements of Regulation Best Interest, and are obligated to undertake a due-diligence process that is so cumbersome, for both the investor and the broker, that it's not worth it.
Brokers can use our library of compliant advice APIs to add personalized, objective help to their existing client experiences. Our APIs ensure that clients only see objective, defensible advice that is compliant with both the words and the intent of regulations written by FINRA and the SEC.
Taffrail has a library of thousands of fact-based advice rule APIs that brokers can add to their existing client experience to give investors the personalized help that they need, where they need it.
Each advice rule uses conditional formulas that evaluate investing constraints against the client's own information. Information that the broker may already know about the client, like their age, can be passed to our API so the client can verify their information without needing to re-enter it. Rules know when to ask for unknown data, only when it's relevant, and any new information received can be exported in real time.
The Taffrail advice rules can be used as-is, or customized with a firm’s own voice and calls to action.
Most brokers have separate educational areas with a plethora of helpful, safe, and unquestionable guidance. Brokers offer these generic recommendations under a safe harbor of the SEC’s Regulation Best Interest.
Until now, brokers have avoided personalizing this content out of fear of triggering the burdensome requirements of giving "regulated advice". With Taffrail, it is now possible for brokers to personalize their existing content in a manner compliant with the SEC's regulation.
When brokers use Taffrail's advice-as-a-service, they know their users see advice built on rules-based, formulaic logic. They know the client has provided the relevant data necessary for the advice to be accurate, and they know there is a record of each piece of advice given, and why.
Our APIs make it possible for brokerage firms and banks to painlessly add objective, tailored recommendations to their existing apps while maintaining compliance with all regulatory obligations.
Taffrail offers the industry’s first API specifically designed for financial advice — what we like to call "Advice-as-a-Service".
Powered by AWS and built by developers who have decades of experience building high-performing financial solutions, Taffrail's API is as refreshing as it is familiar. In fact, it's exactly what you'd expect — fast, secure and easy to work with.
Rules are written in a logical and readable way, that makes them easy to review and test. Once in production, each API call is archived. Compliance and product teams can review each piece of advice ever given, along with assumptions, user inputs and click-throughs.
Whether it be your existing website, mobile app or even your virtual assistant, our API is context aware and supports conversational interfaces out of the box.
Since many recommendations programmed in Advice Builder are bite sized and action-oriented, sending push notifications is just another way to engage users.
Our API has native support for conversational interfaces which gives you the ability to integrate with virtual assistants including chatbots and Alexa-enabled devices.
At the core of Taffrail’s platform is Advice Builder, a custom content management app where all advice rules are composed, managed, verified, and audited. Firms can use our powerful screening tools to find pre-built rules or write new rules from scratch in minutes.
Our apps are built on AWS infrastructure for security, scalability, and the reliability we've come to expect from cloud computing.
Any guidance generated by Taffrail’s API is unequivocally risk-free because it is based on objective rules and user inputs.
With many existing tools, firms are required to obtain a complete investor profile for each user before providing a recommendation.
Taffrail is different. Our APIs only ask the user for data that is relevant to the advice being given. For information that the firm already knows, the client can confirm the data that is driving a recommendation.
By creating automated advice rules using software, we can guarantee that each piece of advice is compliant with all of the Suitability and Care obligations that are required by FINRA and the SEC.
We are a team of thought leaders, designers, product managers, and engineers who have been developing solutions in the financial services industry for the last 20+ years. Our team is building Taffrail on experiences gained at firms like Refinitiv, IHS Markit, Morningstar and Goldman Sachs.
Global pandemic or not, we are a remote-first company. What this means to everyone might be different, but to us it means we are focused on being intentional with the culture we promote and the tools we use no matter the timezone. Taffrail was born in the foothills of the Rockies in Boulder, Colorado, and has been spread out between Burlington, Chicago, and San Francisco.
If you're interested in learning more about Taffrail's platform or scheduling a free demo of our rules engine, we're ready when you are — just send us an email below.
It's possible you've gotten this far and you're asking yourself "can this really be true?". Rest assured it is, and we'd love to show you more.