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Both Bill and Joel are correct neither PDF or TIFF are totally secure as both can be modified. I am CEO of DocuXplorer Software, a product used by many Financial Advisors that is familiar to both Joel and Bill. The only sure way to secure documents is with a document management program that can provide their clients with a security system that requires a user login, password and audit trail on each document. The security system should allow for granularity so that users can be denied permission to modify documents or the index data associated, as well as the ability to export, print or email documents. A good document management program will assure that these basic functions are provided and are easy to implement. Ira FogelDocuXplorer Softwarewww.docuxplorer.com

I have a great deal of respect for my colleague and friend David Lawrence, however, sometimes friends can respectfully disagree with each other. I am not of the opinion that TIFF is more secure than PDF. Furthermore, it has recently come to my attention that there is a great deal of misinformation circulating in the advisor community with regard to the relative merits of TIFF vs PDF. My column in the July issue will hopefully set the record straight and answer any questions readers may have with regard to PDF and TIFF file formats. Joel Bruckenstein

I wish to comment on this issue of TIFF vs. PDF. I went back to my notes on this article to recall why I referred to it as a generally accepted industry standard. I located my conversations with both Laserfiche and Xerox on this point. I also found a white paper on it, from the construction industry, that supports the standard and explains why. (available upon request) I found others from architectural, design and government sources as well.Another issue is the cost factors. I found a reference to the copyright issue, that some firms have opted for TIFF for more than just security and compression efficiency, but perhaps due to the higher costs of paying for the use of 'PDF'. In most of my columns, I try to nail down at least three sources for a statement like this (can't get past my journalism background, I guess). I remembered that there was some debate over the acceptability of the PDF format. So, when researching this article, I looked for outside sources (non-financial) that might corroborate the point. In article after article, I kept seeing the [b]TIFF Group IV [/b]referred to as an industry standard. [i]"Most document management image files follow two standards: TIFF Group IV (Industry Standard) andPDF (the de facto standard)." [/i]Quote from Courtside Document Services[i]"Tiff Group IV is the image compression format most widely used in document imaging today."[/i] - Quote from LegalScansOne benefit that I failed to mention in the article was the compression capabilities of a TIFF image versus the PDF. TIFF appears to be better at this, thus conserving space. The irony is that Aldus Corp, developer of the TIFF format was purchased by Adobe Software, developer of the PDF format some years ago.Hope this information proves helpful to my readers. I have spoken with my friend Joel Bruckenstein on this issue and he may write a follow-up article on the differences and the controversy. Thanks, Dave

I'm not sure what Mr. Lawrence means when he says the PDF format is not as secure as TIFF. Both formats are equally susceptible to manipulation and alteration after initial scanning/conversion and can be made to look like originals. The best practice is to save all electronic media in a system that provides audit trails for all documents. PDFs and TIFFs can be changed after the fact, but it is much more difficult to modify an audit trail in a document management program. Bill Winterberg, CFP® [url]http://FPPad.com[/url]