AdvisorFinder platform aims to put prospective clients in the driver’s seat

Jason Friedman is borrowing a page from food delivery service DoorDash and vacation rental platform Airbnb to develop a consumer-focused platform for matching financial advisers to potential clients.

The Virginia Beach, Virginia-based former Merrill Lynch representative launched AdvisorFinder last week as a service he hopes will stand out among a sea of similar and competing platforms.

“It starts with solving the problem of finding a financial adviser for consumers,” said Friedman, co-founder and chief executive of AdvisorFinder.

Taking a swipe at traditional referral platforms that loosely identify prospects and then unleash a platoon of advisers to chase them down, Friedman said his platform puts the consumer in the driver’s seat by making them responsible for the initial interactions.

Friedman, who left Merrill Lynch in May, said the idea for AdvisorFinder came to him after dealing with the frustrations of existing referral services.

“I noticed we were constantly being asked to use online platforms to prospect and saw that the current platforms weren’t cutting it,” he said. “Most of them were expensive, time consuming, and it was a poor experience for the prospect. People didn’t even understand what they were looking for. They would submit responses to questions and would get cold called.”

Factoring in the way digital and mobile consumer services are quickly evolving, Friedman decided to focus on what consumers might be looking for from advisers, instead of the other way around.

“You have to give consumers a good experience, otherwise the cost of customer acquisition will be really high,” he said. “Without a good customer experience it’s tough to connect both sides.”

Less than a week after launching, it’s way too early to measure success or failure, but there is no shortage of perspectives.

“This feels to me like it’s explicitly focused on helping clients find advisers,” said Blaine Thiederman, founder of Progress Wealth Management.

Thiederman said he is on several referral platforms and that AdvisorFinder “makes it easy to understand the adviser and the adviser’s focus.”

“A lot of my clients are in their 30s and 40s, and they have certain expectations from a website,” he added.

Chris Randall, founder of Axis Capital Management, is hoping AdvisorFinder will help him reach more young investors and savers who are looking for their first financial adviser relationship.

“I think the platform is very intentional in how it lays out the differences of who advisers are best at serving,” he said. “It lays it all out so the consumer can find the best fit, and they don’t have to sit through five sales pitches from different advisers.

AdvisorFinder charges financial advisers $249 per year to list on the platform, but consumers can utilize the site for free without even having to create an account.

The platform launched with 145 advisers, but Friedman said the long-term goal is to expand beyond just advisers to all kinds of financial professionals.

Currently, adviser profiles include basic contact, company, and experience information, as well as credentials and areas of specialization and links to BrokerCheck for more details and disclosures.

Friedman admits he still has a ways to go in developing more features to attract consumers to the site, which will eventually include a frequently-asked-questions feature and more education related to choosing a financial adviser.

April Rudin, president and founder of The Rudin Group, said such platforms “benefit both sides of the equation,” but her initial thought was that “AdvisorFinder is more focused on the adviser rather than the end client.”

“Some of the terminology that’s used may be foreign to end investors,” she added. “I am all for using digital to bridge the gap, but I think that we are only in the first inning here. Who will educate prospects on how to choose from among these choices? That’s the secret sauce to making this type of platform successful.”

Megan Carpenter, chief executive of FiComm Partners, said the market is quickly becoming flooded with platforms and services designed to connect advisers and consumers, but that the key for AdvisorFinder will be getting the word out to consumers.

“DoorDash is successful because they spend a lot of money advertising,” she said. “The question for AdvisorFinder is how will they drive traffic to the site?”

Even in an industry as personalized as financial planning, Carpenter believes there is a place for these kinds of matching programs, but it all comes down to standing out in a crowded marketplace.

“I do believe a market exists, because consumers are going online to find advisers, but as far as a program like AdvisorFinder, attracting consumers is the challenge,” she said. “Advisers are looking for more ways to drive growth and they’re having a hard time generating new avenues of inbound prospects. And this is an area where the national platforms are already investing heavily.”

[More: Merrill launches matchmaking service to connect investors and advisers]

Related Topics: FiComm Partners, Merrill Lynch, The Rudin Group