Online financial advisors’ directories and rankings, including the advisor’s education background, assets under management and even disciplinary records are now easily available on the website to investors and potential clients.
This is a growing trend, extending beyond the boundaries of FINRA’s BrokerCheck and the SEC’s Investment Advisory Search, or IAPD. A number of startup companies are emerging looking to meet the demand of consumers who are looking for more transparency from the financial services advisors with whom they do business.
WealthManagement.com presented an in-depth view on June 4, “The Fishbowl Effect” outlining what’s out there, with a warning that advisors are going to be more visible (like it or not), and they need to become proactive on their online profiles in order to have a better chance to define the way the public sees them … this means monitoring what is being published and verifying that the information broadcast is accurate.
So should a rep join all the sites, some, and which ones, or none at all? An overview of the different sites out there will be the content of my next blog articles – stay tuned.