Website redesigns for advisers

Financial advisory firms that are mulling the idea of revamping their company websites can learn some useful lessons from others. For instance, RegentAtlantic Capital LLC is planning to launch the third generation of its website early next month after a $50,000 overhaul. The registered investment advisory firm, of Chatham, N.J., has $1.8 billion in assets under management. "We wanted to change the look to achieve something engaging and unique — sites are all just so similar these days — and we wanted to escape the typical brochure-speak that's so prevalent," said Lauren Goldfarb, who led the redesign effort as RegentAtlantic's business development coordinator. Her firm came away with a few key points of advice that are applicable to other firms of any size. First, Ms. Goldfarb said, the firm had to admit that financial advisers aren't necessarily experts in web design. Another point, learned from its web design firm, Project6 Design Inc. of Berkeley, Calif., was to keep the amount of text on a given web page to about 200 words. "The more text, the more the message gets lost," Ms. Goldfarb said. Another important consideration was to evaluate site usage, she said. The company found Google Analytics from Google Inc. of Mountain View, Calif., helpful. RegentAtlantic found that its clients weren't particularly interested in gee-whiz technologies for making the site interactive, nor were calculators or stock tickers a big draw, Ms. Goldfarb said. Ultimately, a more mundane feature proved most popular. "The Kitchen Conversations pages, where we have pictures of our community volunteer efforts, see a lot of traffic," Ms. Goldfarb said. Ritter Daniher Financial Advisory LLC of Cincinnati decided to carry out a redesign based on an upcoming award it is to receive and has again turned to the services of Advisor Products Inc. of Westbury, N.Y. Ritter Daniher, a fee-only firm, has $115 million in assets under management. This time though, the firm is taking a more customized approach that goes beyond the simple templates of its first site, which was used successfully for about six years. "We got some outside opinions on what our site was doing for us, and we heard from several clients and other advisers that, 'Hey, we know a lot of the neat things going on at your firm, but no one else probably does,'" said co-owner John Ritter. That feedback and the award gave Ritter Daniher the impetus to redo the site. "One specific thing will be that on the home page is a button icon for the International Torch Award that will launch directly to an internal page with the accolades we've received," Mr. Ritter said. In addition, the site will have a new animated Flash video on the home page, as well as new photographs throughout. In total, Mr. Ritter said he expects to spend a little more than $5,000 on the redesign, which will probably go live in the next few weeks. He advised firms that plan a redesign to keep three additional points in mind: Keep the font size legible for older clients, keep the site's text concise and try to use photos that reflect your typical client. While many mid- to large-sized firms or independent advisers will turn to outside web design companies for help, others will make the best of the services offered by their broker-dealer or custodians. Charles Parks, president and chief executive of C.F. Parks & Co. Inc. of Salisbury, N.C., updated his site with tools from independent broker-dealer Commonwealth Financial Network of Waltham, Mass., which also hosts his site for $75 a month. His firm has about $100 million in assets. "Clients are discovering things about us that they'd forgotten," Mr. Parks said of the unveiling of the updated site in January. The popularity of one new and interactive aspect of the site, account aggregation, surprised him, he said. "We've gotten fantastic feedback from clients about it," Mr. Parks said. He said that his firm had undergone a fundamental shift in how it regarded its site. "Before it was just a brochure," Mr. Parks said. "Now we are using it to build our brand."

COST OF REDESIGN

If you don't have a website and want to start with something very simple, plan on spending about $250 to $400 for a basic site that is created using a pre-existing template and will be hosted for one year. More customization will progressively scale the cost upward. A good ballpark figure is $5,000 for a site that has some customization and a few calculators or widgets, but the costs can go as high as $50,000 or more for a completely customized site. E-mail Davis D. Janowski at djanowski@investmentnews.com.