Borrowing a page from Match.com and other online dating services, InvestorClarity.org in June launched an online, algorithms-based matchmaking service it hopes will become the go-to site for investors searching for the right financial advisor, and vice versa.
Shelley Hackler, 39, founder of the York, Pa.-based company, says InvestorClarity has built a database containing roughly 300,000 advisors using information available from Finra and the SEC. In addition, it provides what she calls premium profiles that let advisors provide additional information about themselves--such as specialty client groups serviced, community activities and personal interests--to help them stand out from the crowd and hopefully improve the odds of attracting the ideal client type.
Investors can search for advisors using 11 different search criteria including geographic area, investment specialties, years of experience, fee structure and the advisor's minimum investment amount. InvestorClarity's algorithm process takes that data and creates a list of advisors who most closely correspond to an investor's chosen criteria and who are, presumably, better suited for a long-term business relationship.
InvestorClarity's algorithms were developed by computer science professors at nearby York College. Various online dating services use matching algorithms to help people find a significant other.
Some academics who've studied this topic pooh-pooh the effectiveness of those systems. But Hackler believes her new site offers an edge over existing online advisor search competitors by producing custom search results rather than just spitting out a directory list of names. "People today, particularly the millennial generation (i.e., Gen Y) want things fully customized," says Hackler, something she learned at a previous job as the national director of research and planning for Aramark, a global professional services company.
Hackler says the idea for InvestorClarity came during a conversation with her husband, a wirehouse financial advisor. She says they were talking about work and about matching people, and it occurred to her that the advisor field is a fertile place to provide customizable searches to help investors find financial advisors.
InvestorClarity faces no shortage of existing competition. Wirehouse firms, major broker-dealers, industry trade groups and the CFP Board of Standards all have online sites to connect the public to their membership bases or, in the CFP Board's case, its licensees. Other outfits such as the Paladin Registry, WiserAdvisor.com, BrightScope and ClaroConnect offer online search capabilities to help connect investors and advisors. WiserAdvisor, for one, says it employs a proprietary algorithm to match advisors based on an investor's specific needs.
Hackler, however, thinks some of the competing sites are biased toward advisors with certain memberships or credentials, and says her site is agnostic about both designations and channels. "The FPA has a great site, but it's biased because it lists only its members," she says.
The FPA makes no apologies for that. "Our members meet certain criteria such as holding the CFP designation, having no ethics violations and adhering to a standard of care," says FPA spokeswoman Lynn Brackpool. "If that's biased, then we'll take it."
Hackler posits that some other advisor search sites give preferential listing to advisors who pay for better placement in searches. She says InvestorClarity doesn't charge advisors anything to use the site, or to add material for a premium profile. Roughly 230 advisors had created premium profiles as of early October, she says.
Hackler speaks with missionary zeal about her new company. "Our goal is to build the best search mechanism for both advisors and investors," she says.