Planners get yet another offer from online firm

A growing online financial services firm is joining a long list of Internet companies that are recruiting financial planners as emissaries to the world beyond the computer screen.

OneCore.com, a brokerage that caters to small-business owners, has been working since last summer to develop a network of financial advisers who will refer their small-business clients to the firm. It has teamed up with 50 so far and last week signed a partnership agreement with Result Accountants Systems, a network of 472 accounting firms across the country.

In exchange, OneCore refers small businesses to planners and also will pay referral fees.

Barry Star, chairman and founder of the two-year-old firm, says that more of alliances are in the pipeline as OneCore becomes the latest “new economy” company to leverage advisers as a marketing tool. It joins the likes of venture capitalists OffRoad Capital and Garage.com, which have been wooing advisers.

“Business owners like to work with financial advisers on their personal and their business planning,” says Mr. Star. “They’re an influencer channel. We market directly to small-business owners but it also helps to work with business influencers.”

Mr. Star, 41, has a resume in software design that dates back to a stint with pre-Macintosh Apple Computers, and he knows a thing or two about financial advisers.

As an executive with Fidelity Investments from 1989 to 1994, he developed the Fidelity Investment Advisor Group.

Mr. Star says he got the idea for the firm when he was running his own consultancy and receiving shabby treatment from his bank. OneCore offers a wide range of small-business financial services, including cash management, bill payment, 401(k) retirement plans and lines of credit.

OneCore, which is planning to go public this year, on Friday secured $30 milllion in its third round of funding to expand service offerings, marketing and infrastructure. Century Capital Management, Paine Webber Group Inc., Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. and Onex Ventures all contributed to the financing.

If OneCore sees advisers as marketers, advisers see the brokerage as a partner that offers a wide range of services for their clients.

Just as important, unlike a bank or traditional brokerage, OneCore doesn’t compete for asset management business. While OneCore offers a 401(k) service, advisers who were interviewed saw this as no real threat.

The matter is important to advisers because small businesses are an important source of clients for many of them — driving their business in some cases.

Small-business owners “represent a large share of their customer base,” says Dennis Gallant, a consultant with Boston-based Cerulli Associates.

The threat to advisers is that OneCore will create its own sales force — something that Mr. Star says won’t happen.

OneCore works with advisers on a variety of levels. They can simply refer clients to OneCore (and collect a referral fee) or directly supervise the client accounts.

“The adviser can stay as much in the loop as they want,” Mr. Star says. “If an adviser wants to be the front line of the client or the point person, we will work through the adviser.”