Clients want online access, say firms: Includes chart

So why do brokerages pour money into them, and why should advisors care? The answers are customer service, client
retention, marketing and communication.

“Forty per cent of our client base have signed up for Internet access because [they can] view their accounts,” says Gordon Gibson, senior vice president and managing director of Montreal-based National Bank Financial Ltd. “We also have analytical tools to look at the asset allocation of their accounts. That information is something that they value. Whether advisors realize it or not, clients want that.”

Gary Reamey, head of Canadian operations for Mississauga, Ont.-based Edward Jones, believes it’s the firm’s customers who determine what the company offers through its Web site. “You want to reinforce their decision to give their business to you,” he says. “[A Web site] should provide both services and information.”

And the wide range of services and information that a client can access on a typical brokerage’s Web site is astounding when compared with what was possible even in the recent past.

“Our clients expect it,” says David Agnew, national director of Toronto-based RBC Dominion Securities Inc. “They can see their accounts online, the activities of their accounts live. If a dividend comes in, they see it before the mail arrives. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, they can receive quotes, research reports, company profiles, watch list, strategy list, etc.”

And consumer sites don’t just help the client; they also can help the advisor.

“[NBF’s] private client Internet access service is such that a number of advisors use it at home as a way of working from home and managing client accounts,” Gibson says. “[Through the private client access], our advisors can actually push messages out to their clients. More than 100 advisors during this RRSP season used our Internet access to send targeted messages to their clients — any client in their sales code — not via e-mail but through our Web site.”

Consumer Web sites also offer advisors a chance to market their own businesses through means of linked Web pages.
Usually constructed on a company template, advisor sites allow IAs to post contact information and a photo; provide listings on events or lectures; point out interesting research; and generally tailor the site to the specific needs of their clients.

“We can also provide advisors with all of the statistics on their clients’ hits,” Gibson says.
“We can go to them and say, ‘By the way, did
you know your client was looking at this type of information?’ Advisors tend really to appreciate that.”

Consumer Web sites are also a great way for brokerage firms, notably the bank-owned houses, to tell investors about the full range of their products and services, although this is something not all advisors appreciate.

“These systems are used to pitch to the clients bank products and discount products rather than advice,” says an Ontario advisor with TD Waterhouse Private Investment Advice. “The advisors are being
marginalized.”

Brokerages say that letting investors know
about all the products and services available just supports what the broker is doing.

“The advisor is the really the quarterback of the entire experience for their clients,” says Dave Pickett, the head of practice management for Toronto-based TD Waterhouse. “I think that the clients’ ability to access their accounts and move money from bank to brokerage and write cheques from their brokerage account are part of the experience that the IA can facilitate. The site is going to be an emerging force and an ally for the advisor.”

Toronto-based BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc. again grabs the highest mark this year (8.2) for its consumer site, down marginally from 8.3 posted last year. Richard Mills, executive vice president, managing director and national sales manager of the private client division for the firm, attributes the site’s success to its ease of access, calling it “clean and easy to navigate. It’s very quick to update when something changes.”