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Oak Harvest Financial Group runs three distinct businesses - a financial planning advisory, a registered investment company, and an insurance agency - all under a single compliance function. Nathan Kattner, the firm's Chief Compliance Officer, has a clear philosophy: keep the internal compliance team lean, and rely on external consultants to assist with the heavy lifting.
When he joined Oak Harvest four years ago, the firm was archiving communications through two separate vendors - Smarsh for email and social media, and Erado for video. Consolidating both into MirrorWeb was one of his first moves.
The Challenge: A Fragmented Compliance Stack
For a firm with a presence across many social media platforms, the compliance footprint was already significant. The two-vendor setup added an operational problem on top of that: managing two vendor relationships, two platforms, and two costs for what was fundamentally one compliance function added complexity without adding value.
Kattner had seen this kind of fragmentation play out at other firms too. The priority when he arrived was straightforward: reduce complexity, reduce cost, and put tools in place that would let compliance scale without adding headcount.
"That was one of the first changes I made coming in. It just made sense to consolidate those vendors into a single solution."
The Solution: MirrorWeb Across Every Channel
Kattner had worked with MirrorWeb at a previous firm and brought that experience with him. He evaluated alternatives including Smarsh, PageFreezer, and Global Relay, but the combination of a trusted prior relationship, strong value, and a platform he found more intuitive than Smarsh made the decision straightforward.
MirrorWeb now archives Oak Harvest's email, websites, and full social media activity through a single interface. Kattner works alongside one part-time colleague, with support from external compliance consultants rather than an expanded internal team. For a compliance function built deliberately to stay lean, having every channel covered through a single platform makes a difference.
The Impact: Simpler to Run, Easier to Delegate
The consequences of MirrorWeb's usability went further than Kattner anticipated. Because the platform was easy to learn, he was able to train his compliance consultants to handle social media and email reviews – substantially reducing time spent on those activities. .
"If the system was hard to use or clunky, that would not have been an option for me, because the consultant could not have taken that on."
Onboarding was straightforward, and the customer service has been responsive throughout.
"The customer service has been very good as far as getting back to me with any questions that I have."
As Oak Harvest's channel needs have grown, MirrorWeb has kept pace. Every capability Kattner has requested has already been available. Oak Harvest recently concluded an SEC examination, with everything the regulator requested produced as needed.
For Kattner, the message to other CCOs considering consolidation is simple: the disruption is smaller than it looks, and the upside is immediate.
"It was an easy sale within our company to be able to take it to the CEO and say, hey, we've got two different vendors, if we consolidate into one, not only does it save us money, but it also makes my job easier. That's a pretty easy thing for the leadership to sign off on."
One platform instead of multiple means less complexity, lower cost, and clearer oversight. Talk to us about consolidating your compliance stack.
