One way Luminous has traditionally tried to acquire new business is by cold calling executives at firms going through mergers and acquisitions, said Harrison, whose firm joined the network in its testing phase about six months ago.
"It allows us to click and see who we know knows and how they know that person, which is a very powerful tool," Harrison said. The limitation of Equilar Atlas is that it doesn't include executives at private companies, he said. Luminous doesn't use Facebook or LinkedIn to connect with prospective clients, said Harrison.
Equilar Atlas has begun adding private companies and is expected to have more than 4,000 by the end of the year, said Chun.
Since people in the wealth-management industry already know who the wealthiest CEOs are, the database may be most helpful in revealing names and compensation for CEOs of smaller public companies that may be below the radar, Chun said.
Firms are more interested in finding worthwhile prospective clients than just reaching the maximum number of prospects, said Chuck Richard, vice president and lead analyst for business-to- business trade publishing and company information at Outsell Inc., a research firm based in Burlingame, California.
That means they may be more interested in a product like Equilar's database, especially as companies reduce staff and spending on sales and marketing, Richard said. Outsell doesn't have any shares or investment in Equilar.
WealthEngine, an internet-based wealth identification service, offers nonprofits, financial institutions and luxury goods companies a way to find new clients. The database has 100 million households in it, 16 million of which have a net worth of at least $1 million, said Kimberly O'Donnell Mullins, a spokeswoman for the Bethesda, Maryland-based firm.
The online service, which has more than 3,000 clients and begins at about $3,500 for an annual subscription, started in 2000, O'Donnell Mullins said.
Justin Fulton, a principal and client strategist at Signature, a family office in Norfolk, Virginia, with $2.2 billion in assets under management, said in an interview before the Equilar site went live that his firm traditionally attracts clients from referrals or sponsoring local events where prospective clients may be.
"I don't ever see a social-networking tool as a replacement for face to face" in attracting high-net-worth clients, Fulton said. "It would purely be a complement."