Web Design for Financial Firms

The must-haves depend on how the firm is registered, so we start there.

For an SEC-registered investment adviser, the home page says who the firm serves, and the site adds services, adviser and staff bios, fee and minimum information, disclosures, a contact form, a privacy notice and a scheduling path. It also links to the current Form CRS and to Form ADV Part 2A. Form CRS is a relationship summary that the form's instructions say must be posted prominently on the firm's public website, in a location retail investors can easily reach. It is a separate document from the ADV brochure, so both get working links, with revision dates where they help.

A state-registered adviser or financial planner needs registration and credential information stated accurately, a fee explanation and any state-required disclosures. State rules differ. In Florida, for example, Rule 69W-600.0131 lists prohibited business practices for investment advisers and their associated persons, and a firm in another state follows its own regulator's rules.

A broker or registered representative has a different requirement. FINRA Rule 2210(d)(8) calls for a "readily apparent" reference and hyperlink to BrokerCheck on the first page meant for retail investors, and on pages that carry a registered person's profile or contact information. The requirement took effect June 6, 2016, and FINRA's approval order says a footer generally does not satisfy "readily apparent," so placement is judged from the view of a reasonable retail investor.

Fee pages explain the charging model, minimums, billing frequency, what the fee includes and any material conflicts, without implying that a higher or lower fee proves quality. Designations such as CFP® follow CFP Board's ethics and conduct standards, which means no page implies that a person holds a mark they do not.

A public contact form collects what the firm needs to reply: a name, contact details, general service interest, preferred language and scheduling preferences. Above the submit button we place a notice such as "Do not send account numbers, passwords, tax identification numbers, investment instructions or other confidential information."

Private onboarding belongs somewhere else. A secure client portal or the firm's approved workflow handles account details, tax documents and identity information, and the website points to it. Limiting what the website provider can see, and writing down where each submission goes, is part of the setup.

Firms already run software for client records and planning, and the website should hand inquiries to it in the smallest safe way. Wealthbox lists more than 150 integrations across calendar and scheduling, financial planning, compliance, onboarding and marketing. RightCapital documents CRM connections with Redtail, Wealthbox and SmartOffice. eMoney lists integrations with Redtail, Wealthbox, PreciseFP and others, and Redtail advertises more than 100 integrations.

On the website side, the steps are short:

1. A public form sends each submission to the firm's approved email, CRM or intake system.
2. Scheduling uses the scheduling provider's official booking link or embed, so appointment data stays in the firm's calendar system rather than in a separate website database.
3. Confidential information goes straight to the secure portal.
4. The firm's compliance and IT contacts confirm that the form, CRM connection, analytics, cookies and calendar tool are approved and can be archived.
5. The firm keeps administrative access to its domain, content, analytics and integration accounts.

The public site does not need access to a client's planning data. It creates an inquiry or an appointment record, and the private work continues in the firm's own system.

Advertising rules shape what a financial firm can publish, and the firm's compliance professional, counsel or broker-dealer decides how they apply. We build around these rules.

For SEC-registered advisers, the SEC Marketing Rule, Advisers Act Rule 206(4)-1, took effect May 4, 2021, with a compliance date of November 4, 2022. Under it, an advertisement cannot include an untrue statement of material fact or omit a fact that makes it misleading. Material claims need a reasonable basis the adviser can substantiate, and benefits are presented with fair treatment of material risks. Testimonials and endorsements, including compensated ones, come with required disclosures, such as whether the person is a client, whether they were paid and any material conflicts. Performance and hypothetical performance carry separate conditions, so we do not place figures on a general page without the firm's specialized review. An SEC enforcement action lists a website advertisement and missing copies of website advertisements among its alleged violations.

For broker-dealers, FINRA's guidance on social media and communications applies Rule 2210 to websites. Communications must be fair and balanced, false, exaggerated, unwarranted or misleading claims are prohibited, performance predictions and projections are generally barred, and material information cannot sit in a footnote.

For reviews, the FTC's Consumer Reviews and Testimonials Rule took effect October 21, 2024. It covers fake reviews, reviews from people with no real experience, incentives tied to a positive or negative review, undisclosed insider reviews and review suppression, and FTC staff says it can reach a web agency or reputation-management provider. So we publish only real reviews the firm has approved, keep the original text, date, author and permission record, never edit a review so its meaning changes, and disclose payment or family and employment ties. A firm can also launch with no reviews at all.

Pages, videos, posts and testimonials may count as records. The firm uses its approved archiving or recordkeeping vendor, and we support it with a content inventory, version history and a change log showing who approved each page and when it went live.

Local search results are mainly based on relevance, distance and prominence, and complete, accurate business information is more likely to appear for relevant searches. Google also states that there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking. Structured data can identify business details such as hours and contact information, and Google Search Central notes that it does not guarantee a particular search appearance.

That points the work toward facts: a firm name, address, phone number, hours and service descriptions that match on the website and the Google Business Profile, descriptive page titles and headings, internal links, structured data, a sitemap, redirects from an old site, page speed and accessible text. We map each search term to the firm's real need before proposing a scope or price.

Many firms serve clients in both languages. A real bilingual site has Spanish-language service pages, not a toggle that translates only the menu, and the English and Spanish pages carry the same services, fees, limitations and disclosures. Compliance language is reviewed in each language before it goes live rather than machine-translated and left alone.

The firm provides or approves its legal name and trade name, firm type and registration status, the supervising broker-dealer where one applies, current Form ADV Part 2A, Form CRS and other required disclosures, BrokerCheck language, licenses and designations, services and target clients, fee schedule and minimums, biographies and photos, office address and hours, privacy notice, and the destinations for the portal, CRM, scheduling and email. The firm also gives final approval before anything is published.

We audit the old site for broken links, outdated disclosures and mobile problems, build the page structure and templates, draft page copy from the facts the firm supplies, and build service, team, fee, FAQ, blog and Spanish pages. We add the Form ADV, Form CRS and BrokerCheck links the firm provides, set up the contact form with its notice, connect the approved scheduling, CRM and portal links, and configure analytics, metadata, sitemap, structured data and redirects. We also tune speed, mobile layout and accessibility, prepare drafts for the firm's compliance or broker-dealer review, publish only approved content, and remove or correct content when the firm instructs us to.

The decisions stay with the firm: whether a testimonial is permitted, whether a claim is substantiated, and what its regulators require. We also leave investment and tax advice to the firm's professionals and send confidential client information only to the firm's own secure systems.

These are Inversado's starting prices as of October 2026, and every price is "starting at."

• Website: $1,500 build plus $99 a month. That covers a full site, typically 60 to 80 pages, with hosting, care and at least 4 new blog posts a month.
• Google Business Profile management: $149 a month.
• Local SEO and AI search: $395 a month with a 6-month commitment, or $495 a month month to month.
• Social media: $295 a month, with 3 posts a week on 2 platforms.
• Growth bundle: all three add-ons for $595 a month with a 6-month commitment, which is $244 a month less than the $839 they cost separately.

The price changes with the number of pages and locations, scheduling or CRM integrations beyond a link or embed, extra blog posts, extra social platforms and content written from scratch. These figures are not a quote or a contract. Work starts with a signed written agreement that sets the scope, price and timeline, and with a paid setup or build fee. We do the work ourselves.

Once the build fee is paid, the firm owns its website, domain, design, copy, photos, finished videos, code, analytics, Search Console, forms and client data. We transfer ownership of accounts to the firm where needed, and accounts the firm already owns stay its own. If the firm leaves, everything leaves with it, and we hand over credentials and documentation. The monthly website plan is optional and month to month. Rankings, leads, clients, assets and results are not promised, because a website is one input among many.