For compliance officers
How Ascend helps your brokerage follow the rules.
Plain answers to what your compliance officer, regulator or errors and omissions (E&O) insurer will ask. If something isn't covered here, ask me on the call.
Four commitments behind every system.
The AI (the automated assistant) never gives advice.
It never gives financial, lending or legal advice, quotes rates or makes regulated judgments. Anything that looks like advice goes to a licensed person. The system handles logistics; your people handle judgment.
Every action is on the record.
Each step is written to an append-only record that can't be quietly edited. If a regulator, insurer or client asks what happened on a file, you can show them, line by line, in order.
Client data stays in Canada.
Your clients' personal information is stored and processed only in Canadian cloud regions, including the AI steps.
A person approves what matters.
Set rules decide what's routine. Approval points are agreed with you before launch, and a named person approves the step wherever a decision matters.
What the record looks like.
A short part of one night's record. Your compliance officer can read it without help.
| Time | What happened | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| 9:03:09 p.m. | Inquiry received | Website form |
| 9:03:09 p.m. | Duplicate check | Passed: first time this inquiry was seen |
| 9:03:12 p.m. | Advice check | None found: the reply has no rates and no advice |
| 9:03:47 p.m. | Reply sent | 38 seconds, personal reply with booking link |
| 9:03:47 p.m. | Broker notified | Queued for the morning summary |
| 9:11:02 p.m. | Sent to a broker | Follow-up asked about rates; the AI's reply was stopped |
| 8:12:05 a.m. | Broker approved | Name attached to the file |
Illustration only. Each entry is chained to the one before it, so any later edit shows. No personal client information is ever written to the record.
What we build with.
AI models are chosen per task and approved by you. Hosting is in a Canadian region of the provider that fits your requirements.
Works with
Logos are trademarks of their owners and are shown to identify the services we work with. No partnership is implied.
How engagements work.
- You get a written scope and price before anything is signed.
- Ascend licenses the system to you. Ascend builds, hosts and maintains it, and owns the software.
- Your data is yours: your clients' data, documents and the full action record.
- Leaving: give 30 days' notice. Within 30 days you get a full export of your clients' data and documents, the complete action record (including everything you must keep for FINTRAC), and a playbook of your workflows and templates.
- If Ascend stops operating, you get a licence to keep running your own instance, with the code needed to do it.
- Support: replies the same business day, Pacific time.
The binding terms are in your signed agreement.
Detailed questions.
Is this compliant with my regulator?
Every system is designed to the strictest reading of the rules that apply to you: FINTRAC (Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada) under the PCMLTFA (Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act), BCFSA (BC Financial Services Authority) requirements, and your errors and omissions (E&O) insurer's expectations. Your compliance officer's sign-off is a required step before launch, and every build comes with a full record of what the system did, so you can check it yourself.
What about liability and errors and omissions (E&O) insurance?
The system is built so the risk your E&O insurer worries about can't happen: the AI never gives advice, quotes rates or makes regulated judgments. Those go to a licensed person, every time. Because every action is written to a record you own, there's never a question about what the system said or did.
Where does client data live?
Only in Canada. Your clients' personal information is stored and processed only in Canadian cloud regions, including the AI steps. Your system is hosted where your security requirements point, for example AWS (Montreal), Google Cloud (Montreal or Toronto) or DigitalOcean (Toronto). Personal information is never written to system logs.
What happens when the AI finds something it can't handle?
It stops. Set rules decide what counts as routine. Anything unusual, unclear or close to advice is stopped and sent to a named person. Nothing fails without anyone knowing: if something can't be processed, a person is told.
Exactly where do people approve?
At checkpoints we agree on before launch. The rule is simple: nothing important happens without a name attached to it. The system enforces the checkpoints, and every approval is a line in the record.
What does the record contain, and who owns it?
Every action the system takes, timestamped and in order, with each entry chained to the one before it so tampering shows. It contains no personal client information. It's yours: available on request, and it stays with you if we stop working together.
What happens if we stop working together?
Give 30 days' notice. Within 30 days you get a full export of your clients' data and documents, the complete action record (including everything you must keep for FINTRAC), and a playbook of your workflows and templates. If Ascend stops operating, you get a licence to keep running your own instance, with the code needed to do it.
We already have a CRM. Does this replace it?
No. It connects to it. Your CRM stays your main system, and Ascend does the work around it: replying, following up, checking and recording.
Who builds and runs it?
I do. Ascend is one person on purpose: the person on your call designs, builds and operates your system, so your work is never passed to a team you've never met. If I'm unavailable, your system keeps running on its own; it doesn't need me day to day. Support replies the same business day, Pacific time.
Bring your compliance officer to the call.
Thirty minutes. I'll show you how the record works and where your people approve.