Merrill Wealth Management launched a new, research-based, digital online tool on Tuesday that the wirehouse said connects people seeking financial advice with a Merrill advisor who best fits their needs and preferences.
Merrill Advisor Match was in development since late 2020, Jennifer Auerbach Rodriguez, head of client acquisition, retention and strategic growth initiatives, told ThinkAdvisor during a recent briefing and demonstration of the new tool.
"Like many efforts at Merrill," Advisor Match was developed "in the closest of partnerships with our financial advisors," she pointed out, noting they included some of the firm's best advisors, who provided their feedback on various aspects of the tool, including it being integrated directly into their client relationship management tool or Salesforce.
Just ahead of the tool's launch on Tuesday, 5,300 Merrill advisors across the U.S. were "ready to get matched" with prospective clients using the tool, she said, adding a marketing campaign is planned to promote it.
Tech Experts Doubtful
Fintech experts, however, questioned just how effective or useful the new tool would be for people who don't currently have an advisor, a key market that Merrill is targeting with the tool.
"If I were in the market for an advisor, I'm not sure I'd want to use a tool that limited the pool of advisors to ML advisors only," Joel Bruckenstein, head of Technology Tools for Today (T3), said on Tuesday by email. "That does not make sense to me."
Pointing out that "online advisor matching tools have been available for over a decade," Timothy Welsh, president and founder of consulting firm Nexus Strategy, said the new Merrill tool is "not at all new or innovative and is limited to just a Merrill Advisor, which by definition makes them all the same since they can only use and recommend Merrill products."
Meanwhile, the "platforms that have been successful, like IndyFin, are true open architecture, creating the opportunity for investors to get a truly tailored match," Welsh added.
