Making the grade: Investors can rate advisers on new website

Clients will be able to rate their financial advisers using a website launched this week. Brian Robertson, a financial representative at Ackley Financial Group Inc. of Dallas, has, on his own, launched FinanceAnswers.com after developing the project for eight months. The site includes a database of some 20,000 advisers that Mr. Robertson put together using various public sources. Users of the site can anonymously post comments about the advisers. Consumers may also post financial questions to be answered by financial advisers. In addition, Mr. Robertson hopes that advisers will participate in the site by answering client questions or contributing to a blog that he started to explore financial topics. But some advisers are concerned that compliance rules issued by the Securities and Exchange Commission or the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. may limit them from directing people to the site or posting messages that could be construed as sales or advertising. Glowing commentaries by clients posted on the site could be considered advertising if the adviser promotes the site, said Jeff Bernier, chief executive at TandemGrowth Financial Advisors LLC, a Roswell, Ga., firm with $65 million in assets under management. “An adviser's message [in a blog] would be going out to more than 10 people and at that point it has to be preapproved [by a compliance officer],” he said. “The biggest concern I have would be compliance issues,” said Carolyn McClanahan, founder of Life Planning Partners Inc. of Jacksonville, Fla., which has $28 million in assets under management. “You cannot steer somebody to the site if there are positive comments about you.” The acts of convicted swindler Bernard L. Madoff inspired the idea for the site, said Mr. Robertson, 23, who graduated from Murray State University in Kentucky last year.