Category: Financial Advisor

The idea of commissioning a custom website for your financial planning firm may sound expensive and intimidating, especially if this is your first time building a website from scratch. 

If you try out one of the many online website building platforms, you’ll find that it still takes a lot of work and expertise to make an amazing website. It requires a good eye for design, technical know how, in-depth SEO knowledge, and copywriting skills—among many other things.

Are you willing to take on the job yourself? Can you deal with all the issues that are likely to come up?  

Here are a few reasons why you should seriously consider hiring a professional web designer for your financial advisory firm’s website. 

Focus on Your Business

Figuring out all the ins and outs of building a great website will take up a lot of your time and resources. You may be able to find someone who can help you for a really low price, but there’s no assurance that you’ll get the results you’re looking for.

An experienced web designer will listen to your ideas and actively make suggestions about what will work and what won’t. All it takes is a bit of communication and you can let your designer take care of everything for you. 

When you have a reliable web designer, you’re free to focus on essential business matters. You won’t be stressed out dealing with lots of tiny issues, and you’ll have a great looking website in a shorter amount of time.

Establish Brand Identity

Your website is crucial to building a strong brand identity. It’s going to be your firm’s online presence, so it has to reflect your company’s vision and values. It has to look professional and put your business in a positive light. 

A professional web designer can help you build your brand identity if you don’t already have one, or seamlessly incorporate your current branding into the website. This will make your website stand out and help distinguish your firm from all the other financial advisors in your market. 

Effortless Usability

When potential leads and clients check out your website, they want to find out more about you and your firm. Even if you have all the right content on the site, it’s not going to be very helpful if it’s not easily accessible. You also need to make your website easy to use on both desktops and mobile devices.

Web designers can not only come up with a great looking design, they’re also experts when it comes to creating intuitive user interfaces and layouts. This lets your website visitors quickly reach the information they’re looking for, which helps reinforce a positive association with your company. 

In a lot of cases, your website will be the first thing your clients will come across, so it has to make a good impression on anyone who visits. 

Extra Features 

With a custom website, you have the freedom to include fancy designs and features like animations, chat boxes, landing pages, apps, and calculators to your website. Your web designer can easily add or remove elements to your website whenever you see fit. And every time you make a change, you’re 100% sure that it’s going to work flawlessly. 

Still Not Convinced?

Your website is going to be the face of your organization online, so it shouldn’t be taken too lightly. It should look presentable and make people feel comfortable doing business with you. It can give or take away credibility and plays an important role in gaining people’s respect. It’s also an extremely helpful marketing tool that can turn mildly interested leads into long-term clients. If you have a good SEO and content strategy, you can widen your reach to different markets. 

A custom-designed website requires a minimal one-time investment but plays a huge role in establishing your brand and increasing your client base.

Launching and working in your own financial advisor practice or firm may sound like an ideal career path, but it’s not as easy as it sounds and it definitely cannot be done overnight. It requires a lot more planning and hard work than most businesses, and requires a lot of dedication to make your practice succeed. 

It’s even harder if you have no experience in the financial services and financial planning industry. It’s an uphill battle even for experienced financial advisors starting out on their own, because the process of building up a sustainable client base while trying to keep up with your personal and business expenses can be quite taxing. 

Let’s take a closer look at some of the basic things you’ll need to start up your own financial advisor firm.

Startup Capital and Ongoing Expenses

The good thing about launching your own financial advisor practice is that it’s not as capital intensive as other businesses. You don’t really need to purchase equipment or inventory to get started. You probably already have a decent computer and a phone, so that takes care of many of your communication and marketing needs. 

Realistically, you probably need around $5,000 to $10,000 to get your financial advisor practice off the ground. This should take care of your compliance and business filings, and also allow you to set up your website and subscriptions for software and tools.

Here’s a short list of the things you’ll need:

1. 1. • Registration Costs
      • Website 
      • Financial planning software
      • Monthly subscriptions
      • Insurance
      • Office space
      • Staff

Renting an office space and hiring staff will significantly add to your overhead expenses, which means you’ll probably need more than $10,000 to cover your rent and payroll for the year. But these expenses aren’t absolutely necessary unless you want to start out with a small team of administrative assistants and junior advisors. 

Technology has made managing a financial planning business much easier and you don’t really need to rely on administrative staff anymore especially if you’re just planning on a small or medium-sized operation.

Many solo financial advisors have been very successful doing business purely online from home or from co-working spaces and only occasionally meet prospects and clients at their homes, businesses or in restaurants over lunch for presentations and discussions.

All the other costs we’ve listed are absolutely necessary if you want to be successful. Luckily, in most cases, both the initial and recurring costs are not really that high considering the returns you can realize as your business grows. 

What you do need to consider is how you’re going to cover your personal monthly expenses as you’re building up a client base that can sustain both you and your business. The first few months or even years are going to be tough if you don’t have a steady stream of clients signing up, so you need to be prepared financially for those tough times. 

Licensing and Compliance 

When most people think of a financial advisor, they’re most likely thinking about an RIA (Registered Investment Advisor). RIAs have a fiduciary duty to do what’s best for their clients. 

Someone who is purely a registered representative for a broker-dealer is not bound by the same fiduciary oath as an RIA, but is licensed to sell securities and a wide array of investment products. However, many RIAs are also independent broker-dealers so they can meet the demands of their clients.

To become a RIA and be able to legitimately provide financial advice and get compensated for it, you need to be registered with your state. If you plan on doing business in other states, you need to be registered there too. 

You can also register with the SEC, but that will require your firm to have at least $25 to $100 million in AUM (Assets Under Management) or you have to be doing business in more than 15 states. 

To be able to register your business as an RIA, you, as the principal and IAR (Investment Adviser Representative), should have passed the Series 65 exam. If you’re already a registered representative for a broker-dealer, you should already have taken the Series 66 and Series 7 exam which also qualifies you for the Series 65 exam. 

In addition, most states will also waive the Series 65 requirement and allow you to start an RIA if you have any of the following professional qualifications:

1. 1. • CFP (Certified Financial Planner)
      • CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst)
      • ChFC (Chartered Financial Consultant)

While the Series 65 is the minimum requirement to start your own RIA, most clients will want to see that you have a CFP title as well since you’ll be competing with financial advisors who have CFPs which is often seen as the gold standard for professional qualifications in the financial planning industry.

There are many companies like RIA in a Box and XY Planning Network that can help you with your compliance requirements if you’re having any trouble navigating the registration process yourself.

Brand Development and Marketing

Before registering anything, you first need to think about your company name and how you’re going to develop your brand. It may seem like a small detail, but it’s going to be the foundation of your business and your marketing once you start officially registering things. 

You also need to come up with a good logo so that people can easily identify your brand. It’s best to find an experienced professional who can help you with the design aspect so that you can present your company in the best light possible.

Look for a web design agency that has lots of experience with financial advisor websites. They can make sure that your website looks professional and appealing to anyone looking for financial services. They’ll also be able to take care of your copywriting and SEO needs so that people can easily find your site. Most people will want to research more about your firm before they sign up with you, so you need to make sure your website is able to create a great first impression.

In most cases, it’s better if you focus on a specific niche so that you can properly align your branding and marketing with your target audience. Being a specialist doesn’t deter you from taking on clients outside of your niche, but it does help you appeal to a specific audience. 

It’s also easier to streamline your financial planning strategies around the needs of your niche audience. Eventually, you’ll become a recognized expert in the space and you’ll have pretty much dealt with every scenario that comes your way.

Final Thoughts

Once you’ve established your financial advisor practice, you need to focus on building your client base if you want your business to survive and thrive. This will require a lot of active marketing, cold calling, follow-ups, and networking. At the same time, you need to provide great service and deliver on your promises to your existing clients so that you can build up your brand’s reputation. You need to make your company stand out from your competitors and constantly work on increasing awareness for your brand. All of it is extremely hard work, but the end result is very rewarding.

In order for your financial advisor practice to succeed, you need to have a great game plan. Financial advisors who are just starting out not only have to face stiff competition from well-established firms, but also new technology developments such as robo-advisors which are much cheaper and easier to set up. 

Here are 10 things you can start doing today to be able to keep up with the times and make your financial advisor firm more successful.

1. Figure Out What The Market Wants

You can’t build demand for your services if you don’t understand what people in your target market are looking for. Before you can offer a solution, you have to identify what people’s current pain points are. 

Every time you talk to a new prospect, try to identify common issues that your ideal clients have difficulty dealing with. Pay close attention to what people are saying and gather as much information as you can so you can develop a streamlined financial strategy that will solve most of your target market’s problems..

2. Find a Niche and Specialize

Most financial advisors who are just starting out try to cast as wide a net as possible in hopes of getting more people to sign up with them. They’ll often use a generic pitch that tries to appeal to everyone, but isn’t really great at evoking the right emotions and results in low conversion rates.

It’s quite understandable if you have to resort to these sales and marketing tactics if you’re just starting out. But after a few weeks or months of talking to different prospects, you should already be able to identify a specific niche that you can specialize in. 

Once you’ve picked your niche, you have to be ready to pivot your branding and financial planning strategy to address that specific market’s every concern. For example, millennials and high-net-worth individuals have very different perspectives when it comes to their financial planning and wealth management. 

When you focus on just one niche, you’ll become an expert at handling their financial strategy. You’ll reach a point where you’ve pretty much encountered every possible scenario, and will have a tailored financial plan ready to go just because you’ve dealt with it dozens of times before. 

People in the community and your professional network will start seeing you as an authority figure in your niche and you’ll eventually be able to generate more business through referrals and word of mouth.

3. Develop a Unique Value Proposition

Just because you’ve already decided to focus on a niche, it doesn’t mean that people in your target market will pay attention. You have to carefully develop your branding so that it clearly reflects your company’s values and mission. 

If you find the right words, your marketing campaigns can cut through all the noise that people are regularly exposed to and make your audience pay attention to what you’re offering. 

Your unique value proposition has to be more than skin deep. Even if you can get them through the door through your marketing, your prospects need to be able to see that you’re truly dedicated to delivering on your promises and that your firm is structured to do so.

4. Get Your Name Out There

No matter how great your branding or financial planning strategy is, nobody will come knocking at your door if they don’t know you exist. During the first few years of your firm, you have to work extra hard to build up awareness for your brand both online and on the ground. 

You need an outstanding website that’s on par, if not better, than your competitors’. Your website is the foundation of your digital marketing and is the online face of your business, so you have to make sure it looks professional and reflects your brand accurately. 

Make sure you’ve got updated profiles on all the major social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Sign up for different online directories like Google My Business and Yelp, as well as other sites that are relevant to your area and/or industry. All of these platforms will make your firm easily searchable and increase your brand’s visibility.

Of course, your marketing shouldn’t be isolated to the digital realm. You also need to be constantly networking with potential clients, professional groups, and local organizations so that you can generate more word of mouth for your firm.

5. Communicate Effectively

In addition to coming up with a great marketing plan, you also need to constantly be engaging with your leads and prospects. In today’s digital landscape, people expect quick response times and outstanding customer support with every business they deal with. 

If you ignore or take your time in responding to inquiries, people won’t bother waiting around and simply move on to the next available advisor. You have to treat every possible prospect as if they’re your most valued client if you want to increase your chances of getting their business. How you respond to leads and prospects reflects how you communicate with your clients. 

This is especially important when you’re dealing with public platforms like social media where the general public can easily see your people skills. How you manage your reputation online and offline is going to be a crucial part of your firm’s success. 

6. Leverage as Much Technology You Can

Many startup businesses will be tempted to pinch pennies and forego subscriptions to essential tools that can make their life easier. They assume that they can do a lot of it on their own, until they become overwhelmed with all their responsibilities. 

You don’t have to pick the most expensive plans for every piece of tech you use. You can start with basic plans or at least sign up for free trial periods so you can start learning how to use these tools to your advantage. 

You have to remember that your competitors are also using lots of different tech to automate their workflows and better serve their clientele. Don’t be afraid to check out different CRM platforms, social media tools, and financial planning software so you can find the tools that work best for you.

7. Be Flexible With Pricing Models

Unless you’ve already found a pricing model that works best for you and can sustain your business, you have to be ready to offer different options for your potential clients. Your competitors are likely going to offer just one or two options, and this may not work for a lot of people. 

In order to appeal to more potential clients and differentiate yourself from other financial advisors, you can offer several options such as:

• Percent of AUM
• Fee-based
• Hourly
• Monthly retainer

Remember that you also have to compete with robo-advisors which have very minimal investment requirements and cost significantly less than hiring an actual financial advisor. By lowering your firm’s barrier-to-entry, your prospects won’t feel as intimidated as they would when they sign up with a more established practice. Eventually, as your client base grows and your business becomes self-sustaining, you can choose the pricing models that work best for you.

8. Choose Experienced Consultants and Agencies

When you’re running a business, you can’t spread yourself too thin because it’s going to affect the quality of your work. If you don’t have any expertise in a particular field, it’s best to outsource it to a more experienced professional. Now is not the time for trial and error, and you don’t want to give people the impression that you barely know what you’re doing. 

It’s best if you can find people who have years of experience working with financial advisors so that they’ll know exactly what kind of service or product the market wants. 

For example, when you’re setting up a website or developing a digital marketing strategy, you’ll want to partner with agencies that know the financial services industry inside and out. This will guarantee at least some level of success with whatever it is that you’re trying to achieve.

9. Research Your Competition

While you want to set yourself apart from your competition, it’s always a good idea to check in on them from time to time to find out what they’re up to. There’s always going to be an opportunity to learn from their mistakes and also incorporate what they’re doing right into your own business. Using competitor research you can avoid making the same mistakes which can be extremely costly for both startups and middle-stage firms.  

10. Provide Personalized Service

Well-established firms and large financial institutions will have large teams of salespeople and junior advisors working for them and are often more concerned with their bottom line and their shareholders. As a smaller practice, you can differentiate yourself by offering personalized services that other firms and robo-advisors simply cannot provide. You can tailor your services to the needs of each client which is quite rare nowadays. 

In fact, most high net worth individuals prefer a more personal approach especially when it comes to their finances. They want bespoke services that aren’t available to everyone else and they want to work with people who will listen and do exactly what they want.

Final Thoughts

If you’re having a hard time keeping up with your competitors, you have to be open to try new things. What worked in the past won’t necessarily be effective today. Don’t be afraid to take risks and dive into previously uncharted territory. There might be huge rewards waiting at the end of the road.

Most financial advisors have no interest in adding reviews or testimonials on their website. This is understandable since they want to avoid dealing with regulatory and compliance issues that concern advertisements and endorsements. In addition, established firms prefer a more traditional or conservative approach when it comes to their marketing, and are pretty much stuck in their ways.

The SEC rules can be quite confusing. But what is clear is that you can have reviews on your Google My Business and Yelp pages because these are third party sites that you have no control over. In addition, user reviews posted on these sites are unsolicited and you’re not paying for people to post their experiences. The SEC has also recently announced that it will be revising its rules regarding testimonials and endorsements.

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s find out how online reviews can really help your business.

People Love Reading Reviews

In today’s fast-paced digital landscape, checking online reviews is an essential part of a lot of people’s decision-making process. Millennials and younger generations grew up with the Internet as part of their daily lives and will turn to it first if they ever need more information. Even older generations are just as tech-savvy nowadays, especially with the ubiquity of smartphones that are connected to the Internet 24/7.

According to a recent study, 97% of consumers aged 18 to 34 read local business reviews online, and people over the age of 55 read reviews 81% of the time. 

Both Positive and Negative Reviews Matter

It’s not just good reviews that make a positive impact. Sites that include negative comments engender a sense of transparency and honesty that consumers appreciate.

In fact, a glut of exclusively good reviews can create a sense of distrust. According to Yelp from this post on PracticalEcommerce, when business owners use only self-selected, overly positive reviews, it creates bias in the business listing. “A bias,” said Yelp, “that savvy consumers can smell from a mile away.”

In general, leaving negative reviews and responding to them positively shows that you are able to recognize your mistakes. This is the type of information that customers value. It’s inside information that can actually help build trust in your brand and increase conversion rates.

Reviews Provide Great Content and More Exposure

Search engines, like Google, consider reviews as unique content, giving your website more authority and increases your search ranking. This is especially true when it comes to local SEO results. When you have a lot of 5 star Google reviews, you’ll show up higher up in the search results.

While many consumers trust and use Google, recent research has shown that social media is even more effective. 68% of consumers read reviews on Facebook, and many prefer to leave reviews on Facebook because they’re frequently logged into the platform.

By using social media platforms for financial advisor reviews, you’re exploiting omnichannel brand exposure and getting far more bang for your buck.

Reviews Can Grow Your Bottom Line

According to a study published by Harvard Business Review, even a one-star increase in Yelp ratings can increase business revenue by 5 to 9%. 

Reviews can literally make you more dollars and cents. And for savvy financial advisors that should make a lot of sense.

Find out how AltaStreet can help you manage your online reputation by sending us a message through the form below.

Today’s financial clients are busy people, often unable to spend a lot of time in your office catching up, no matter how important the subject. Clients typically prefer to have easy access to information, communicating from where they want, how they want, to make the most of their own time and resources. The same holds true for your staff, who have to act quickly with the information they have.

Intranets and client portals make this a simple and effective part of your business offerings, keeping your clients happy and your company’s success ever-rising.

What is an Intranet?
Intranet software positively impacts your clients but is not something they directly access. Instead, an intranet is an in-house system that enables employees to safely and quickly share up to date information, even in a time crunch.

Financial companies are often dealing with rapidly changing, highly time sensitive details that have to be communicated to staff and then to clients. With an intranet system in place your employees can easily share and access resources along with information about customers and their needs, so when a customer arranges a meeting or requires an update, the pertinent details are available at each staff member’s fingertips, with up to the minute accuracy and the security and stability your company needs.

Intranets also help get processes and applications running smoothly and staying that way, Different wealth management programs and policies require various levels of approval. With an intranet, you can streamline this workflow so that a client is not waiting any longer than needed.

With a well-designed intranet network in place every member of your staff will have the resources they need, and the ability to send information along, with an effective and efficient system that will keep your clients satisfied at every step.

What is a Client Portal?
This is where your company can take a forward-facing approach to meeting your clients’ needs, and providing self-service as appropriate. A client portal allows a similar level of resource sharing, but between staff and financial services clients instead of staff to staff.

With a client portal, your customers can log on and access and share documents, services and information needed to make wealth management decisions.

This is an easy way to share confidential information securely, and provide clients with what they need without requiring an in-person visit, or even a telephone call or an email. Of course, if a client needs more information they can get in touch at their discretion, but the details from the portal can often be enough to answer questions, securely and with easy access at any time.

Client portals can and should be fully integrated into your existing website and branding, so they are an integral aspect of your offerings.

Intranet services and client portals are just a few of our offerings, proven to add value to your company’s site. Let’s work together to make your financial services the best they can be. Contact us today!

You’re giving a motivational presentation to your staff. You are wooing potential business partners. Only, you discover that your Powerpoint presentation pages are in the wrong order. You panic. In fact, your entire presentation is just words from a Chinese menu.

Well, yes, this scenario could have you waking up in the middle of the night. But it’s not the worst nightmare. Surely.

Isn’t the worse nightmare getting back to work after giving your presentation, only to realize that you don’t have any clients? This is a real scenario for too many financial businesses. It’s the unfortunate reality for businesses that fail to maintain a proper online presence.

You may be a traditional financial firm with traditional practices and values, but you will have noticed that more and more of your potential customers are not traditional. They like smartphones and wearables and they want to do business with you online. If you’re not there to meet them, they’ll keep surfing.

Today’s customers want customer service, their way, and they want it now. For an increasing number of financial clients, this means being able to interact with a financial advisor’s web presence, which provides 24/7 access. If they don’t get it, don’t expect a telegram or a protest outside your building. Expect tumbleweeds.

Why does a financial advisor need a web presence?

Since more and more people are using the web to do business, you need to be online to compete. A well-maintained web presence will help your business in many ways, including by:

Improving discoverability – with an effective web presence, you can spend less time looking for customers, because your customers will be coming to you. By keeping your website current and employing certain tried and tested techniques, your website will attract people via Google, other search engines, and networks.

According to Google, more than three-quarters of people who search for a business via a mobile device visit that business within a day. More than a quarter of them then perform a transaction.

If people can’t find you – if you’re not even showing up on searches for “financial advisors near [LOCATION]” – you are losing business.

Establishing trust – A website is a sign that a business means business. It is where many potential clients go to find out more about what you do and who you are.

If two financial advisor websites are identical except has an up-to-date blog and a downloadable, this well-maintained site will have the most traction. A site that has not been updated for weeks is like a dusty shop window with the lights off.

“It could be open, but … let’s try this other store first; the one with the welcome sign and people inside.”

Improving customer service – If you only offer customer service by phone during business hours, you are missing out on the potential customers for whom this is not enough.

In our experience, some prefer to communicate via texting, instant messaging, Skype, or email. Your job is to know your customers well enough to know not only what they want, but how they want it. Then give to them.

With a robust internet presence, you can chat with clients and potential clients in real-time using various applications. You can be on the right social platforms for your clients – whether that is LinkedIn, Facebook, or another site or app – so that you can interact with them in a way that is most suitable and convenient

How to Wake from the Nightmare of a Tired Internet Presence

If your website is working as an online business card or brochure, it’s not working. The internet allows so much more than digital versions of static, print marketing, and clients demand much more, so here are some tips for maintaining and optimizing your web presence.

Optimize your branding – while your internet is not just a business card, it should still be consistent with your other marketing efforts. Your emails, brochures, downloadables, and letterheads should feature consistent branding to help establish trust. Your website is no exception. Don’t risk a cheap, DIY template solution to do a good job with your branding.

Be contactable – Make sure that you have a contact page with more than a phone number. Why wouldn’t a business make it easy for clients to get in touch? Include email and any social networks you and your ideal customers use.

Also, consider an online form so that it is as easy as possible for people to reach you for quotes, advice, or more information.

Perform SEO – Search engine optimization refers to the techniques used to help your site achieve higher rankings with search engines. The good news is that the more advanced SEO gets, the more it aims to provide good experiences for your visitors. Good SEO practices will improve the speed of your site, the helpful keywords you use, and how people in your town or city find you.

Optimize Conversions – A good website will attract many visitors. A great website, however, can also convert them into clients.

You can use analytics to see how your visitors find your website, where they land, how long they stay, and where they go afterward. All this information, and more, can be used to create supercharged pages that give your visitors what they want and encourage them to take action.

Maintaining a website is a cost-effective way to bring a lot of business your way. And note that this is not random traffic-generation. You can build quality traffic and reach out to people who are already interested in exactly what you are offering.

Updating your website can be a lot of work, but with a revamped framework and a clear digital strategy, it will work for you 24/7/365. We have the skills and experience to help you maintain the perfect financial advisory website.

We understand finance and digital marketing inside out. If you want to grow or streamline your business the smart way, give us a call at (216) 894 5193, email us at dan@altastreet.com, or use our online form.