How we protect your financial documents

Accredited investor verification only works if you're willing to share sensitive financial documents. We've built the process so you share the minimum, only the reviewing CPA ever sees it, sponsors never do, and everything is deleted on a fixed schedule you can hold us to.

Encryption

• Encrypted in transit (TLS 1.2+). Every page and every file upload runs over a modern encrypted connection using TLS 1.2 or higher, with obsolete and vulnerable protocols disabled. Documents are never transmitted, or accepted, over plain email.
• Encrypted at rest (AES-256). Uploaded documents are stored on Amazon Web Services with S3 server-side encryption using 256-bit AES (AES-256) — not as open files on a server.
• No documents in your inbox or ours. Files move through the secure upload flow on this site, not through email attachments that linger in mailboxes.

Compliant storage infrastructure

Uploaded documents are processed and stored through Uploadcare, a specialized file-handling provider running on Amazon Web Services. That infrastructure is independently audited for SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001, and Uploadcare operates in accordance with GDPR and CCPA — so your documents sit on storage certified against recognized security and privacy controls rather than on a general-purpose server we manage ourselves. Uploadcare's specifications are published in its security whitepaper.

To be precise about what that does and does not mean: those certifications are held at the infrastructure and vendor level. AccreditedNow LLC is a small, independent verification service and does not itself hold a separate SOC 2 certification — we rely on this audited infrastructure for storage and keep our own handling of your documents deliberately narrow, as described on this page.

Who can see your documents

• Only your assigned CPA. The single licensed CPA reviewing your case is the only person who opens your financial documents. They are not shown to the public, to marketers, or to other customers.
• Sponsors receive the letter, never the documents. When a deal sponsor or fund asks for proof, they receive the CPA's signed verification letter — a short attestation of your status. They never see your tax returns, statements, or balances. This is the core advantage of third-party verification: you prove you qualify without handing your financial life to every sponsor you invest with.
• We do not sell your data. Your documents and personal information are never sold or shared with data brokers. See our Privacy Policy and Do Not Sell or Share page.

You can redact what we don't need

The CPA needs to see the figures that establish your income, net worth, or license — not your full identifiers. Before you upload, you are welcome to black out details the review does not require:

• Social Security numbers. Cover the SSN on tax returns and W-2s.
• Full account numbers. Leave the last four digits visible if you like, and cover the rest on bank and brokerage statements.

Redacting these does not slow your verification down. The review depends on the income, asset, and liability figures — not on your account numbers or SSN — so covering them changes nothing about how fast your letter is issued.

Retention and deletion

We do not keep your financial documents indefinitely. They are kept only for the life of your verification and are then destroyed automatically:

• Deleted after 90 days. Your uploaded documents are permanently purged 90 days after your verification letter is issued — the same window the letter itself is valid for.
• Automated, not manual. The deletion runs on an automated daily process, so it does not depend on someone remembering to do it.
• The working copy goes too. An automated step summarizes your figures to speed the CPA's review; that summary is purged alongside the source documents, so nothing derived from them is kept either.
• With a dated audit record. Each purge is stamped with the date it occurred, so there is a record that the retention promise was honored.

The one thing we retain is the signed verification letter itself — not your underlying financial documents — so that the certificate can still be confirmed as genuine. The letter contains no account numbers, balances, or other sensitive financial detail. Full detail is in our document privacy terms.

Independently verifiable

Questions about security

If your firm has a security or diligence checklist, or you'd like these details in writing before you or your investors upload anything, contact us — we usually reply the same business day. Sponsors and funds can also read the Sponsors & Funds page, and everyone can start with the free 3-minute status check.