Full-Service Wealth Management Firms: It's Time To Transform Your Websites

Advisor-based firms serving the wealthiest US investors have neglected the online channel for years, leaning heavily on the person-to-person channel instead. But full-service firms' clients are active online, and they value website quality: Clients who rate a firm's secure website high are also more willing to stay with the firm, do more business with the firm, and recommend the firm to others. So it's a real problem that the websites of advisor-based wealth management firm sites are poor. Most lack features that are common to direct brokerages, like single sign-on access to all accounts and portfolio performance tracking. To make the case for an upgraded online presence, eBusiness and channel strategy professionals need to sell the new investor to senior management and advisors, put a robust measurement platform in place, benchmark sites to show competitive gaps, and estimate the return on investment of a site upgrade.