As he watched his advisory business thrive over the past few years, Anthony Halpin noticed that his website had become stale.
Realizing that it was time for a change, Mr. Halpin and his partner, who own Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC, turned to Morningstar Inc.
Morningstar?
Yes, the fund research giant, after building websites for institutional and corporate clients for the past two years, is now in the business of designing, building and hosting sites for registered investment advisers.
The company's adviser web offerings integrate with Morningstar Office, a web-based portfolio/account management and reporting system that offers a client portal.
“The things that made [Morningstar] attractive were being able to add in the real-time market barometer data, news feeds and commentary, all of which update automatically and seamlessly,” Mr. Halpin said.
Recent updates to the portal clinched the deal, he said, because they allowed his firm to securely store sensitive documents and performance reports, and then share them with clients.
“When the client logs in, they see the previous day's account balances and we can also upload directly into the portal from Morningstar Office,” Mr. Halpin said.
CUSTOMIZATION
Product manager James Levin, who heads Morningstar's adviser website efforts, said that his staff is focusing on firms with 10 or fewer employees.
“For these firms, we're not offering off-the-shelf sites built using templates,” Mr. Levin said. “We customize each site for the adviser and try to incorporate as much of the story as they want to tell about themselves into the site's design.”
The cost of the site depends on the design selected and the number of modules and tools licensed by the financial adviser from Morningstar. A ballpark figure includes a one-time $2,500 website-building fee and an annual cost of about $1,600 for a site with one module, such as the Market Barometer.
[UPDATE: As a follow-up to this story Carling Spelhaug of Morningstar Corporate Communications wrote in an e-mail to clarify that the one-time website build fee of $2,500 and $1,600 annual cost for a smaller, customized website with one module is the low end of pricing — it’s where pricing begins for the product. Depending on the client’s needs, the website build fee and annual cost might be higher.]
Most contracts are for two years and can be paid on a monthly or quarterly basis.
These costs are comparable to those of competitors, which include Advisor Products Inc. and the AdvisorSquare service from LiveOffice LLC, though these providers lack the breadth of tools, modules and level of real-time market data available from Morningstar.
Morningstar also is applying more interactivity to the pages it designs by incorporating Javascript elements. These are miniature programs that give the pages the feel of locally running software. That could be moving a cursor over a photograph in a firm's “About Us” page, which would be set up to display additional photos of the person, for example, or having a market feed pop up with current ticker data.
Similarly, Morningstar's developers and designers make use of an “accordion” effect to best utilize the real estate of some web pages, with the areas collapsing and expanding as the user clicks through the page, something that is particularly useful for sections such as frequently asked questions.
Morningstar offers advisers a smorgasbord of 25 modules, interactive charts, calculators and investment research tools to select from.
Jennifer Cropper of Calidel Financial Services LLC used Morningstar Office to redesign her website, which she said was serviceable but archaic.
Ms. Cropper, a certified public accountant and adviser, had built her first site on her own, using proprietary software from GoDaddy .com Inc., which also hosted it.
“I especially like that my new site is tied in with my investment research, portfolio performance and relationship management software,” she said. “It is much more customized to my practice and goals for a website. It is not a pre-designed, fill-in-the-blank adviser site.”
While all the bells and whistles were important, she was most interested in having a site that was more modern and professional in appearance.
“I can now confidently direct prospects, clients and colleagues to the website,” Ms. Cropper said.
Email Davis Janowski at [email protected]
Visit Morningstar Advisor Websites online for more information.
Other website design, building, and hosting services that cater to advisers:
Advisor Products Inc.
The AdvisorSquare service from LiveOffice LLC
LightPort
Make it a Great Day Inc.
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Note to financial advisers: Does your website need a redesign?
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