Can Google Regulate Financial Advisors? Hot

 

With all this talk about investors’ need for transparency and the high cost of regulation, why not let Google index Form ADV? Why not open up FINRA’s database?

 

It would clean up bad sales practices in the advisory business pronto, and it would help move the financial advice business toward becoming a profession.

 

Alowing Google to index your fee schedule, assets under management, and other publicly-filed informatoin is scary. I understand.

 

But services where consumers review your firm, such as Google Places and Yelp, are going to allow your clients to post comments about you anyway. Why not get on the right side of this?

 

Advisors need to know that Google and others like it are enabling customers to talk about you. On A4A, we offer a similar services where advisors review their software, the same way Amazon provides customer reviews of everything you might ever consider buying.

 

Please don't post comments blaming me for opening up unwanted floodgates of information about your business.

 

However, search engines should index advisor disclosure documents because it's the right thing to do and the right thing to do will eventually win anyway.

 

This is the way the world is headed. So let’s just get on with it.