SEC Rule Change for Financial Advisors: Are Google and Yelp Allowed?

[cleverlyengaged]

Anyone else following the rule change which started back in December of 2020? I have several clients in this industry, I guess the rule change was then put on hold with the Biden administration.

Now I just read this press release: Wealthtender Launches Industry's First Financial Advisor Review Platform Designed to be Fully Compliant with New SEC Marketing Rule

Interesting section:
However, reviews published on conventional platforms like Google and Yelp do not meet SEC requirements for promotion and lack important information necessary for consumers to judge their accuracy and merits.

Certified Advisor Reviews™ from Wealthtender are designed to comply with the new SEC rule and provide the transparency consumers deserve when their life savings could be at stake. For example, consumers will know if:

• Compensation in any form was provided for a review
• Conflicts of interest may have influenced a review
• A review was written by a client or other acquaintance of the advisor

 

[Colan Nielsen]

@cleverlyengaged I'm going to ask Google to see if I can get some feedback.

 

[cleverlyengaged]

@cleverlyengaged I'm going to ask Google to see if I can get some feedback.

Sounds like a good plan, I'm wondering what you find out.

 

[cleverlyengaged]

Sounds like a good plan, I'm wondering what you find out.

Hoping to get Financial Advisors reviews in Google. Any update?

 

[Colan Nielsen]

@cleverlyengaged I just asked Google for an update on this.

 

[Colan Nielsen]

@cleverlyengaged Google got back to me. Here's what they said I could share:

The policies currently applied to Google Reviews do not differ for different business types or categories. We do not have special enforcement, requirements or functionality for financial advisors at the moment

 

[wealthtender]

Hi @JoyHawkins , @Colan Nielsen @cleverlyengaged . It's great to see your discussion on this topic. I'm the founder of Wealthtender, the startup whose press release you referenced above. We designed Wealthtender to provide a fully-compliant reviews platform for financial advisors since sites like Google, Yelp and others simply aren't compatible with the new rule's disclosure requirements.

We recently published a 50 page playbook that I'd like to share with you as I think you'll find it valuable on this topic.

We're in discussions with several wealth management firms who are interested in getting started so their advisors can begin collecting and displaying reviews - Most are saying they should be ready to comply with the broader terms of the new SEC rule around 'late summer' which will then open the door for them to get started with Certified Advisor Reviews on Wealthtender.

I hope you find the resource valuable and I'd welcome the opportunity to respond here to any questions, or via DM (Private Conversation).

Many thanks!

Brian

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Thanks, @wealthtender. I've edited your post to make it compliant with our forum policies ~ @djbaxter

 

[wealthtender]

Hi @JoyHawkins , @Colan Nielsen @cleverlyengaged . It's great to see your discussion on this topic. I'm the founder of Wealthtender, the startup whose press release you referenced above. We designed Wealthtender to provide a fully-compliant reviews platform for financial advisors since sites like Google, Yelp and others simply aren't compatible with the new rule's disclosure requirements.

We recently published a 50 page playbook that I'd like to share with you as I think you'll find it valuable on this topic.

We're in discussions with several wealth management firms who are interested in getting started so their advisors can begin collecting and displaying reviews - Most are saying they should be ready to comply with the broader terms of the new SEC rule around 'late summer' which will then open the door for them to get started with Certified Advisor Reviews on Wealthtender.

I hope you find the resource valuable and I'd welcome the opportunity to respond here to any questions, or via DM (Private Conversation).

Many thanks!

Brian

---

Thanks, @wealthtender. I've edited your post to make it compliant with our forum policies ~ @djbaxter

Thanks @djbaxter . I appreciate the assist.

 

[cleverlyengaged]

Hi @JoyHawkins , @Colan Nielsen @cleverlyengaged . It's great to see your discussion on this topic. I'm the founder of Wealthtender, the startup whose press release you referenced above. We designed Wealthtender to provide a fully-compliant reviews platform for financial advisors since sites like Google, Yelp and others simply aren't compatible with the new rule's disclosure requirements.

We recently published a 50 page playbook that I'd like to share with you as I think you'll find it valuable on this topic.

We're in discussions with several wealth management firms who are interested in getting started so their advisors can begin collecting and displaying reviews - Most are saying they should be ready to comply with the broader terms of the new SEC rule around 'late summer' which will then open the door for them to get started with Certified Advisor Reviews on Wealthtender.

I hope you find the resource valuable and I'd welcome the opportunity to respond here to any questions, or via DM (Private Conversation).

Many thanks!

Brian

---

Thanks, @wealthtender. I've edited your post to make it compliant with our forum policies ~ @djbaxter

Thanks for providing some more detail, I would like to see this 50 page whitepaper. The financial advisors I work with are closely watching the SEC guidelines, but none have pulled the trigger on putting testimonials on their website or doing outreach for Google reviews. It sounds like you are in the same boat. You have many financial advisors looking into getting reviews for their practice, but no one has taken action?

 

[wealthtender]

Thanks for providing some more detail, I would like to see this 50 page whitepaper. The financial advisors I work with are closely watching the SEC guidelines, but none have pulled the trigger on putting testimonials on their website or doing outreach for Google reviews. It sounds like you are in the same boat. You have many financial advisors looking into getting reviews for their practice, but no one has taken action?

Hi. I'm happy to send you the 50 page playbook. My original post with a link to it wasn't allowed, so let me try attaching it here as a file instead. If this attachment doesn't work, please DM me and I'll be happy to send you the playbook link.

We designed our platform to be fully compliant with the new SEC rule and also offer iFrame widgets designed for compliance which can be embedded on your clients' sites. At this time, the wealth management firms we're speaking with who plan to be first movers are suggesting 'late summer' when they will be ready to proceed. Individual advisors with a little more flexibility may be getting started in the next week or two.

Below is an overview of what the Playbook covers and hopefully the attached PDF will be available to you as I post this. I'm also happy to jump on a call with you and/or your clients to answer any questions.

Thanks,

Brian

Financial Advisor Playbook:
Growing Your Financial Advisory Business with Online Reviews

This 50-page playbook covers the following topics in-depth:

• Getting Started with Online Reviews
• Preparing Your Online Review Policies & Procedures
• Crafting Your Disclosures
• Choosing the Right Online Review Platforms
• Asking for Reviews
• Promoting Your Practice with Online Reviews
• Appendix: Templates and Resources

 

[cleverlyengaged]

'late summer', we are only 20 days away from the first day of fall. Why this timeline? Are they expected further guidance from the SEC?

 

[wealthtender]

Great question. The SEC maintains an FAQ page which the industry is awaiting additional updates, but frustrated because they haven't updated the page since April 14th. While I personally believe there's sufficient guidance for firms to get started and do believe we'll see several do so without further guidance, they do have to first comply with the new rule which does cover a lot of ground and thus the timetable for even early adopters to be ready to get started with online reviews.