By Dan Stark, AltaStreet
You can approve a new website design and still find out the content you planned to bring over has to be replaced.
Your advisor bios, resource articles, stock photos, and calculators may share one FMG website. They don’t necessarily share ownership, licenses, or transfer options.
Before an FMG website migration gets a launch date, someone has to pin down what can move, what needs replacing, and who controls the accounts behind it.
If you’re planning a new financial advisor website, settle those questions while you’re scoping the project. The answers shape the writing, development, and handoff you’ll need.
Can you move your FMG website to another provider?
What carries over depends on the rights attached to each asset, your agreement, and the transfer options on your account. Confirm those details before you end your current service.
Moving the pages and moving everything on those pages are different jobs.
Confirm the agreement and transfer window
FMG’s public Terms of Service, revised September 30, 2025, define three content categories: Your Content (your prior non-FMG website material and material you supply), Related Third Party Content (material a related party such as your broker-dealer sends FMG directly), and Company Content (what FMG creates or licenses).
Supplying notes, paying for copywriting, or seeing a “custom” label does not, by itself, establish that FMG-written copy is portable. Confirm the signed Order and any written reuse permission before treating that copy as available for the new site.
Section 2.5 describes paid transfer assistance for material defined as “Your Content,” in a mutually acceptable format, after FMG estimates the charges and you pay that estimate. Its obligation ends 15 days after termination; content may then be unavailable. That window does not promise continued hosting or account access.
Review your signed Order, applicable service attachments, and amendments. Ask FMG to confirm your notice deadline, service end date, transfer format, fees, and any permissions the move requires. Keep those answers with your project records.
Do this before you set a cancellation date. The transfer work should already have an owner and a schedule.
Check what can actually be reused
Having a copy of a page doesn’t prove you’re allowed to republish everything on it.
For written content, find the source files and the agreement with whoever wrote it. For photos and illustrations, check the license and permitted uses. For calculators, videos, and other embeds, ask the vendor whether the service can run on the new website and whether it needs its own subscription.
Stock imagery needs its own check. FMG’s stock-photo guidance says the company can provide a link to buy rights to an image it placed on your website, for use in other branding materials. Before you carry one over, ask FMG about that specific image and whether the license would cover your new website.
At AltaStreet, we exclude FMG syndicated content from migration and verify ownership or reuse rights before moving original content. In your inventory, treat syndicated or library articles as out of scope until rights are confirmed.
That distinction affects the scope. A resource center full of licensed articles may need a new content plan. When reviewing financial advisor website pricing, make sure the estimate accounts for replacement writing and assets. Counting those articles as routine migration work before reviewing their rights makes the estimate unreliable.
Build the inventory before counting pages
Use one row per asset when different parts of a page need different treatment. A service page might hold original copy, a licensed image, and an embedded calculator. One “move this page” instruction is too vague.
Use these categories to start your inventory. In your working copy, identify each specific asset or URL and attach the supporting evidence.
| Asset | Evidence or access to confirm | Decision to record |
|---|---|---|
| Firm-written pages and posts | Source files, authorship, and reuse rights | Keep, update, or retire; assign a destination |
| FMG-created or library content | Applicable agreement and written permissions | Replace or omit unless reuse is explicitly authorized |
| Photos and illustrations | License, rights holder, and permitted uses | Reuse, license separately, or replace |
| Calculators, videos, and embeds | Vendor access and off-platform availability | Reconnect, replace, or remove |
| Forms and integrations | Account owner, recipients, and required connections | Rebuild and test the complete submission path |
| Downloads and disclosures | Current approved version and records instructions | Publish the approved version; retain required records |
| Domain and DNS | Registrar, administrator, renewal date, and DNS records | Assign the transfer or hosting-change steps |
Copy this table and add an owner and a due date to every row before you treat an asset as in scope.
If a right or requirement is unclear, mark the item unresolved. Don’t count it as cleared for migration.
Separate the domain move from the website move
Find out who controls your domain registration and who manages DNS, the records that route web and email traffic. Those may be different accounts and different people.
Changing website hosts doesn’t always require moving the domain registration. Your technical team should confirm which changes you need and who can authorize them.
If FMG administers the domain, follow its account-specific transfer process. FMG’s domain-transfer instructions say unlocking a domain removes automatic renewal, and that you have to request a complete DNS-zone copy in advance. Confirm the renewal date and get the records before the handoff.
If FMG holds your domain under its account, Section 5.3 of its terms says its transfer-assistance obligation also ends 15 days after termination. That deadline applies to FMG’s help. Complete the transfer and confirm renewal arrangements before the registration expires.
Give your technical team the full DNS record set, including email records. Switching nameservers without carrying over the required records can interrupt services that have nothing to do with the new website.
Before launch, decide who makes the DNS change, who tests email and forms, and who’s authorized to reverse it if needed.
Preserve useful URLs and route the ones that change
If a page’s purpose still fits, keep its existing address. A new design doesn’t require a new URL for every page.
When an address changes, map the old URL to its relevant replacement and have your technical team set up the redirect. If you keep the same domain, the new host can generally handle redirects for changed paths. An old address on a platform-owned domain needs its own access check.
Google’s site-move guidance recommends permanent redirects for moved URLs, warns against sending unrelated old pages to the homepage, and advises keeping migration redirects as long as you can, generally for at least a year. If you remove content with no suitable replacement, return an appropriate not-found response. These steps don’t guarantee unchanged rankings.
Include URL mapping and launch checks in your financial advisor SEO plan. Put each destination decision in the inventory and test it after launch.
Preserve the records your firm needs
Before your FMG access changes, ask your compliance team which website versions, disclosures, approval records, and related materials you need to retain, and how to capture them.
Keep that records plan separate from what’s approved for the new public site. You may need to retain something you won’t republish.
Your website compliance process should identify who approves the new content, who confirms you’ve retained the required records, and who authorizes publication. A staging site that works doesn’t settle those decisions.
Launch when the handoff is ready
Use the inventory to coordinate the move:
- Confirm rights and access. Resolve the content decisions, account control, transfer arrangements, and service dates.
- Build and review the replacement. Finish the approved pages, replacement assets, forms, and integrations on staging.
- Prepare the release. Complete the URL map, preserve required records, document DNS changes, and assign launch responsibilities.
- Publish and test. Check key pages, redirects, email, form delivery, downloads, and client-portal links. Confirm the intended public pages can be indexed and that tracking works.
- Monitor and complete the exit. Review errors, search activity, and inquiries. Confirm the remaining handoff tasks and service termination follow the agreed schedule.
The scope is clear when every asset has a reuse decision, a destination, and an owner. That gives your firm and your new provider a plan you can both execute.
If you’re considering a move from FMG, talk with AltaStreet about your website and content scope before you commit to a launch date.