Mutual fund firms are offering more open access to their websites, a report by Corporate Insight found.
2011, 53% of firms offered unrestricted access to at least some of the material on their websites. Now, more than three-quarters of firms offer public access to some portion of their site.
Corporate Insight found only four major firms — OppenheimerFunds, American Funds, Invesco and Franklin Templeton — limit access to their websites to registered advisors only. But while other firms don't require registration to access everything, there are limits on what they share.
One way firms manage what is visible on their site is by requiring advisors to log in for access to profile and account-specific content, leaving access to research and product information available to anyone. Others may mark restricted content with an icon to show users it's unavailable. Corporate Insight found 28% of firms use this strategy as a way to show advisors what they're missing.
Fidelity, however, effectively has two sites: one that hides registered content for unaffiliated or logged-out users, and a complete site for advisors who log in.
