WiserAdvisor, a well-known referral-generation platform for advisory firms, announced it acquired Indyfin on Wednesday.
The mission of the combined firms is to help advisors in building credibility and trust online, according to the founders.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed but the company founders said the two firms will continue to sell their products independently for the next six-plus months while they embark on integrating and a plan to retain all staff.
In the meantime, the two will also work jointly on marketing efforts to acquire both new advisor customers and convince existing advisor clients of the merits of using both products.
While WiserAdvisor has been around for 20 years, Indyfin launched in early 2022 with its investor experience platform. In addition to its similar advisor-client matchmaking mission, Indyfin provided advisors with the ability to gather client feedback—as well as ratings and reviews from them.
“It did not take us long after we first began talking to realize that we will be so much better if we combine forces, it will be better for consumers, advisors, everyone,” said Rishi Bharathan, CEO of WiserAdvisor.
“The synergy is going to help us expedite the process of turning neutral clients into promoters,” Bharathan said, referring to adding Indyfin’s reviews and ratings technology to the larger WiserAdvisor user base.
“The team that (Indyfin founder) Akshay (Singh) has built has been able to build an enterprise-grade platform in short order,” he added. The two firms will have a combined headcount of approximately 25 employees with development teams based in India.
In November 2022, the Securities and Exchange Commission's new marketing rule made it possible for financial advisors to use client testimonials to market their business for the first time.
As the founders noted (and other competitors, including Wealthtender and Amplify Reviews have pointed out), client feedback can provide investors and prospects with trust and confidence by offering transparency into the qualities that make each advisor unique.
The crucial technologies needed to comply with the rule were mechanisms for capturing reviews and ratings; who they were from and whether they were clients; and if they had been compensated or had conflicts.
A risk alert published by the SEC in June reiterated the SEC will be looking for “reasonably designed” policies from firms using testimonials in marketing and diving more deeply at times into reviews searching for “ineligible persons” and other things.
There will likely be continuing consolidation in the digital-lead-generation provider space as they and marketing firms with platforms for financial advisors either build out their own reviews and ratings products or buy the remaining providers.
