The VaultStreet Web Log

We’re happy to report that Shelly Crawford, a veteran credit union technology specialist, has joined our team. She comes to VaultStreet with 17 years of experience in new business development, partner development and account management in credit union, technology and services. Using her extensive experience in partner development, Crawford will focus on expanding VaultStreet’s partnerships with credit unions.

Prior to joining VaultStreet, Crawford served as an account manager at FISERV, a provider of technology solutions to credit unions, and the California Credit Union League. She has also worked with small, financial services technology providers including Passageways, a portal software developer specializing in Corporate portals for credit unions, and SilverCloud Software, a developer of knowledge management systems.

VaultStreet can provide credit union members with the ability to consolidate and automate the collection, authentication, organization and storage of paperless, electronic financial records from a variety of sources. VaultStreet makes it simple, safe and secure for credit unions to provide their members with a compelling tool to switch to paperless statements while maintaining financial documents in a highly-available, authenticated and secure online repository.

Companies interested in partnering with VaultStreet should contact Shelly Crawford at scrawford@vaultstreet.com or Paul Hutchins, vice president of business development, at phutchins@vaultstreet.com.

Consumers interested in a free 30-day trial subscription to VaultStreet should visit www.vaultstreet.com.

1. In MarketWatch’s June 23rd article by Gail Liberman and Alan Lavine, banks going “green” are examined. There are many examples of how the bigger banks are going green and the positives of being more eco-friendly.

2. Did you know that 687,000 tons of paper could be saved each year if every U.S. household stopped receiving paper bills and statements? EnvironmentalLeader.com examines the results of a Javelin Strategy & Research report.

3. Christopher Hosford writes about the Atlanta Green Meetings Council and their movement to go paperless at meetings. The council has saved more than $17,000 in annual printing costs.

4. Dumb Little Man Blog explores how to rejuvenate your messy home office.

VaultStreet now has a Facebook page! If you’re a fan of VaultStreet, tell us (and tell others)!

It was a slower week for blog posts on things we care about. Perhaps Summer’s arrival is distracting folks? Here’s this week’s list:

1. “The Super Easy Approach to Decluttering your Home” by the Dumb Little Man Blog discusses how to start to get rid of all of your clutter. The advice even talks about how much time and energy is spent on cleaning out bills or going over old financial documents.

2. Susan Sabo of Productivity Cafe Blog writes her fourth installment about productivity and the grave. The fourth part of this morbid series discusses what to save for records and documents for your loved ones to have once you have passed on.

3. This is an oldie but a goodie. Tim Ferriss has some great thoughts on going paperless this time last year.

See you next week!

KillerStartup.com is a website that looks for the next big Internet wonder, and Vaultstreet is on their radar! The blog highlighted our “clean, user-friendly interface with easy access to financial institutions”, described the benefits of being paperless, and called out our “state of the art back up technology and security.”

We’d like to thank KillerStartup for the excellent mention and encourage all to vote for us in their survey.

Make sure you vote–click the + sign!

1. Janet Kornblum of USA TODAY writes an article about the growth and convenience of online medical records.

2. Susan Sabo of Productivity Cafe Blog writes the fourth installment today about productivity and the grave, discussing what to save of records and documents for your loved ones who have passed on.

3. Marlo Nikkila of DotComPreneur.com discusses how to become more organized with all of your paper files using her theory P.E.A.C.E. Guess what? One of the E’s means “electronically.”

4. Time Magazine, inspired by the “100 Thing Challenge,” urged its readers to at least consider whittling “down their possessions to a mere 100 items.” It sounds a bit scary, but it’s an interesting intellectual exercise at the very least. As we mentioned just recently , we’re big fans of cutting down on stuff!

See you next week!

The article, nay, the entire site, appears to be a little wonky this morning, but Rafe Needleman of CNET’s Webware.com wrote about VaultStreet this week, calling us “a clever new company that you’ll instantly get if you’re sick of dealing with paper financial records from your bank, brokerage,” etc.  Incidentally, we’re looking at a number of pricing models to keep the costs down for consumers, including partnering with more institutions and financial services providers.

Do you need help dealing with all the “stuff” that you have? Feel a little overwhelmed, but need some encouragement? J.D. from Get Rich Slowly brought “The Story of Stuff” to our attention. This is a great 20-minute animated video on where stuff comes from, and where it goes. Here at VaultStreet, we’re all about less “stuff.”

We hope this makes a difference!

This news hit the wires today:

VaultStreet, Acct1st Partner to Add Secure, Paperless Financial Records Capture and Management to CPA Client Portals

Web-based System Simplifies Collection, Authentication and Management of Financial e-Documents

SANTA MONICA, Calif.–VaultStreet, a service that provides a secure online repository for financial documents from banks, brokerages, utilities and other institutions, has partnered with Acct1st, a provider of paperless solutions to CPA firms. Acct1st will integrate VaultStreet’s document collection, organization and authentication services into its CPA client portal application to greatly expand and automate the portal’s records exchange capabilities.

Acct1st will offer VaultStreet to its accounting firm clients as a value-added service to its existing CPA client portal to automatically collect, organize, manage and store client tax records and financial documents online.

“Partnering with VaultStreet complements Acct1st’s mission to provide our CPA firm clients with relevant paperless tools to increase productivity and add value to their clients. We believe that CPA firms will experience greater client portal utilization and increased branding,” said Andrew Hatfield, Acct1st CEO. “Our accounting firm clients were looking for ways to encourage their clients to exchange documents with them electronically. With VaultStreet’s technology, CPA firms’ clients are encouraged to become paperless in a manner that benefits them as well as the CPA firm.”

“We are pleased Acct1st has chosen VaultStreet to enhance its paperless CPA client portal,” said Carter Kirkwood, founder and CEO, VaultStreet. “VaultStreet makes it easy to automatically and securely collect and organize paperless financial documents from multiple institutions - and share them with their financial providers. For Acct1st’s CPA customers, this means adding functionality to the existing CPA firm client portal that will allow CPAs, and their clients, to reduce their dependence on paper tax records and documents.”

Companies interested in partnering with VaultStreet should contact Paul Hutchins, vice president of business development, phutchins@vaultstreet.com. Consumers interested in a free 30-day trial subscription to VaultStreet should visit www.vaultstreet.com.

About VaultStreet
VaultStreet’s online financial record keeping service streamlines personal financial record storage for consumers. VaultStreet includes automated document collection, authentication of document originality, centralized records retention, and the ability to forward documents to trusted advisors. VaultStreet’s design limits risk with extensive encryption, security and authentication. VaultStreet supports document collection from leading financial institutions in North America. A service of Docuthentic, LLC, VaultStreet has offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Dallas. For more information visit www.vaultstreet.com.

About Acct1st
A multi-solution paperless technology firm, Acct1st is committed to providing CPA firms with state-of-the-art, value-priced, paperless applications that increase productivity and enhance customer service. Acct1st offers a complete suite of paperless applications for accounting firms. Acct1st’s Document Management System has garnered the highest ratings in independent industry reviews. Acct1st’s client portal, PDF annotation tool and other paperless productivity applications are available as integrated or stand-alone solutions. For more information visit www.acct1st.com.

For more information:

Topaz Partners
Ann Dalrymple, 781-404-2432
VaultStreet@topazpartners.com

VaultStreet
Bruce Kin Huie, 415-308-5438
CMO
bhuie@vaultstreet.com

1. The Bank of America’s acquisition of Countrywide has been approved.

2. My Money Blog identifies two other consumer information reporting services used by medical and financial institutions that you should know about (and order free reports from) if you want to stay in control of your personal information.

3. Jennifer from Declutter It! offers some great tips on cutting clutter. We agree with all of them, but especially #7: Be bold - go totally paperless!

4. We may not ever be completely paperless, but we’re moving towards a more paperless society, according to Lorie Marrero.

See you next week!