RSG Logic · The offering · Compliance Care

Layer 03 · Recurring · From $1,500/mo

vCISO credentials.
A fraction of the cost.

RSG Compliance Care delivers the same CISSP + MBA + decade-plus credential profile as a full-time CISO, on retainer, with a named senior consultant on call. Quarterly evidence pack refresh. Monthly advisory. Year-round compliance posture instead of an annual scramble. Optional after any audit — never bundled, never a trap.

Book a 30-minute call See the tiers

01 — The math

What a full-time CISO actually costs.

Most SMBs never see this math because it never makes it past the first conversation with a recruiter. A CISO with the credentials you'd actually trust runs into six figures fast. Compliance Care exists because most SMBs don't need a full-time hire — they need the expert access, on a budget that fits.

Role · qualifications

Annual cost

Notes

Full-time CISO · base salary, Phoenix metro

Salary.com median, May 2026

$380,591+

75th percentile: $424,765

Full-time CISO · total comp, midmarket national average

Base + bonus + equity

$415,000+

Top 5% receive seven-figure packages

Full-time CISO · fully loaded

Includes benefits + payroll tax + equity vesting

$500K – $700K

1.3x–1.4x base, standard multiplier

Industry vCISO firm · typical retainer

$3K–$12K/mo across mid-market vCISO providers

$36K – $144K

Modal pricing: $5K–$9K/mo

RSG Compliance Care Essentials
Up to 25 endpoints · month-to-month after Q1
$18,000$1,500/mo
Managed compliance, no advisory hours

RSG Compliance Care + Advisory
Fractional vCISO · monthly call · vendor risk reviews
$42,000+$3,500+/mo
Recommended for forced-compliance environments

Sources: Salary.com Phoenix CISO median (May 2026) · IANS Research / Artico Search 2025 CISO Compensation Benchmark · SideChannel vCISO Pricing Guide 2026 · Cynomi vCISO Cost Guide · MIT/Hadzima fully-loaded multiplier. Compare claims: base salary vs. total compensation vs. fully-loaded — see source for definition.

02 — Two tiers

One product. Two depths.

Essentials is the managed-compliance baseline: monitoring, evidence pack refresh, training, quarterly review. Advisory adds fractional CISO leadership — monthly advisory calls, vendor risk, board-level reporting. Pick the right depth for the stage you're in. Move up when you outgrow it.

Layer 03a · Tier one

Compliance Essentials

Managed compliance — the quarterly rhythm that keeps your insurance and HIPAA posture renewable, without the overhead of fractional CISO advisory time. Right for clean environments that already have a clear posture and need the program kept alive.

$1,500/mo

Starting · up to 25 endpoints · month-to-month after Q1

What's included

MFA enforcement monitoring across email, VPN, cloud apps, admin accounts
EDR / MDR management and alerting cadence
Patch management with quarterly compliance reporting
Immutable backup management + quarterly restore testing
Quarterly vulnerability scans
Annual security awareness training + monthly phishing simulations
IR runbook maintenance
Quarterly Evidence Pack refresh
Quarterly compliance review call (60 min)

Start with Essentials

Layer 03b · Tier two

Compliance + Advisory

Essentials plus fractional vCISO leadership. A senior consultant in your corner every month, strategic conversations about vendor risk and roadmap, board-ready reporting, and a defined IR support SLA. Right for forced-compliance environments and growing practices that need ongoing leadership, not just maintenance.

$3,500/mo

Starting · up to 25 endpoints · month-to-month after Q1

Everything in Essentials, plus

Monthly 60-minute fractional CISO advisory call
Vendor risk reviews · 4 per year included
Board / leadership-ready quarterly security reporting
Annual pentest coordination (separate cost, marked up at-cost)
Annual policy & procedure review
Defined IR support SLA · 4-hour business-hours response
Named senior consultant · CISSP + MBA + 10+ yrs

Start with + Advisory

03 — The rhythm

What you get every quarter.

Compliance is a rhythm, not an event. Below is what the cadence actually looks like across a calendar year on Compliance Care.

Every month

Monitor, alert, train

MFA enforcement check. EDR alert review. Patch compliance report. Monthly phishing simulation campaign with reporting. Backup restore spot-check. Tickets resolved against agreed SLA.

Every quarter

Evidence Pack refresh

Updated evidence binder ready for any insurance, audit, or vendor questionnaire that comes in. Findings closed, posture rating refreshed, remediation roadmap reprioritized. 60-minute review call with leadership.

Every year

Security awareness program

Annual workforce training rollout with completion tracking. Policy and procedure suite refresh. IR plan revision and tabletop exercise (Advisory tier). Vendor risk reviews (Advisory tier).

As needed

Incident & advisory support

Defined IR SLA on Advisory tier. Strategic conversations about roadmap, vendor decisions, new compliance requirements. The kind of access most SMBs only get from an in-house CISO.

04 — Is this the right fit

Right for some. Wrong for others.

Compliance Care is the right ongoing program for businesses that have a real compliance forcing function. It's the wrong product for businesses that just want basic IT support without the audit and evidence layer. We'll tell you honestly which side of the line you fall on during the discovery call.

— Right fit

You should consider Compliance Care if:

You renew cyber insurance annually and the renewal questionnaire gets harder every year
You're a HIPAA-covered entity (healthcare practice, dental, behavioral health, etc.) and the 2026 Security Rule update is on your calendar
You've already completed a Cyber Insurance Readiness Audit or HIPAA Assessment and need the program kept alive
You sell into enterprise customers who send vendor security questionnaires multiple times a year
You have leadership or a board that wants quarterly visibility into security posture
You're growing fast and have outgrown ad-hoc compliance handling

— Not a fit

You should skip Compliance Care if:

You're a one or two-person operation with no compliance forcing function and no plans to grow into one
You want basic break-fix IT — Compliance Care is the layer above that, not a replacement for it
You want a security vendor you never have to think about — Compliance Care is a working relationship with a quarterly cadence, not a set-and-forget subscription
Your only goal is the cheapest possible monthly bill — we are not the cheapest, and we don't pretend to be
You haven't done a foundational audit yet — start with the audit, then decide whether Compliance Care makes sense

05 — Questions

What people actually ask about the retainer.

The recurring-engagement questions are different from the audit-engagement questions. Below are the ones we hear most often. Email support@rsglogic.com if yours isn't here.

No. Compliance Care is always optional after an audit, never bundled into the audit fee. Some clients take the audit deliverable and run their own program; some keep us on retainer from the start; some sign on after delivery. The audit pays for itself either way.

Month-to-month after the first quarter. No annual lock. The opening 90 days deliver the first Evidence Pack refresh and establish the review cadence; after that you continue month-to-month for as long as the work is earning its keep, and you can stop with notice if it isn't. The quarterly rhythm still compounds — the Evidence Pack gets stronger every cycle — but that is a reason to stay, not a contract that traps you. If you ever leave, you keep every deliverable produced to that point.

Endpoint count is the primary driver. Essentials covers up to 25 endpoints at the entry tier; mid-range environments (26–50) run $2,250/mo and 51–100 run $3,250/mo. Advisory tier scales similarly: $3,500/mo for up to 25 endpoints, $5,500/mo for 26–75, $8,500/mo for 76–150. We quote exact pricing after the discovery call.

Yes. Upgrade from Essentials to Advisory at any annual renewal, or sooner if a forcing function shows up (new compliance regime, board ask, growth event). Downgrades are also available at renewal. No friction either way — the goal is to match the depth of program to where your business actually is.

Advisory tier carries a defined IR SLA: 4-hour business-hours response. We're the first call. We help you triage, coordinate breach counsel if needed, work with your insurer or broker, and document everything for the regulatory cycle that follows. Essentials tier doesn't include the SLA but we'll still respond — incidents just get billed at consulting rates outside the retainer scope.

Because most SMBs don't need a full-time CISO. They need the credentials, the judgment, and the access — for the hours and scope that actually fit their business. A full-time hire is a salary, a benefits package, equity vesting, and a recruitment cycle to find someone qualified. Compliance Care is the same expert depth, sized to a quarter-of-an-FTE retainer. Right-sized, not discounted.

06 — No lock-in

Earn the renewal. Every quarter.

A retainer from an unproven firm should not require you to sign away a year. So it doesn't. The relationship continues because the quarterly Evidence Pack is worth continuing, not because a contract traps you.

— The commitment, honestly

Month-to-month after the first quarter. No annual lock. If the quarterly Evidence Pack and the advisory aren't earning their keep, you leave — and you keep every deliverable produced to that point.

01.

First quarter proves it

The opening 90 days deliver the first Evidence Pack refresh and the review cadence. You decide whether to continue with a quarter of evidence in hand, not a brochure.

02.

You keep the artifacts

Every Evidence Pack, policy, and report produced during the engagement is yours. Leaving does not mean losing the documentation your insurer or auditor will ask for.

03.

Named senior consultant

The person on your quarterly call and your advisory time is the senior consultant who scoped the work — CISSP, MBA, decade-plus. Not a rotating queue.

vCISO access. Right-sized.

A 30-minute conversation with a senior consultant. Tell us what's forcing the compliance conversation and what you've already got in place. You'll leave with a clearer read on whether Compliance Care fits — and whether you should start with an audit instead.

Call (480) 420-4750 support@rsglogic.com

vCISO credentials.A fraction of the cost.