How should advisers share documents with clients securely?

With links restricted to the named recipient and given an expiry, rather than attachments. If a document goes to the wrong address a link can be revoked and an attachment cannot, and for a firm holding client financial information that difference is the difference between a mistake and a notifiable breach.

Advice work generates exactly the documents you least want misdirected: statements of advice containing a client's complete financial position, identity documents, account details, insurance and estate information. The default habit of attaching them to email surrenders control of that copy permanently, provides no record of who opened it, and offers no remedy when the address was mistyped, which remains the most common cause of privacy incidents in professional services.

The setting that matters is the link type. Anyone-with-the-link works for whoever holds it, including in a forwarded email months later, which is convenient and inappropriate for this material. Specific-people requires the recipient to verify who they are and is the right default. Add expiry so links do not outlive their purpose, and set view rather than edit unless collaboration is intended. These can all be tenant defaults, which is far more reliable than instructing people.

Receiving matters as much as sending and gets almost no attention. Clients email identity documents and bank statements because nobody gave them another route, so highly sensitive material accumulates in mailboxes with no structure and no retention. An upload link that deposits documents straight into the client area solves the security and the record-keeping problem together, and clients generally find it easier than attaching files. If you want it configured so the secure path is the quick one, call 1800 456 567.