Advisers need to be web-savvy

With phone books quickly going by the wayside, it is essential that planners create first-class websites to market their firms, Portland Financial Advisors founder Russell Francis said.

With phone books quickly going by the wayside, it is essential that planners create first-class websites to market their firms, Portland Financial Advisors Inc. founder Russell Francis said at the National Association of Personal Financial Advisers conference.

Around 150 million people in the United States search the Internet each day and 93% of shoppers go online to research products. This makes having a quality website for an advisory firm that much more important, Mr. Francis said at a session called “Web marketing for financial advisers” during the conference in Denver, which is sponsored by NAPFA of Arlington Heights, Ill.

“Some of my best clients have come from the Internet,” said Mr. Francis, whose firm is based in Beaverton, Ore.

He added that social networking websites such as LinkedIn.com of Mountain View, Calif., Facebook.com of Palo Alto, Calif., and Myspace.com of Santa Monica, Calif., will be instrumental for advisers who want to get their website links out to the public.

Advisers who want to launch a website but can’t do it on their own can turn to businesses that provide website templates for planners that cost from as little as $500 up to $20,000, depending on the scope of the project.

Some companies who customize websites for advisers include FinancialVisions of Portland, Ore.; Pro Site Plus of Webster, N.Y.; CEPAdvantages.com of Lacey, Wash.; JABWeb Solutions of Beverly, Mass., and Advisor Products Inc. of Westbury, N.Y.