Consumers can rate restaurants, electronics and even teachers on the web, and soon they may be able to rate their financial advisors, too. RIABiz's Lisa Shidler reports that BrightScope plans to unveil a Yelp-like online-review system for advisors by the end of 2011.

The San Diego-based research firm already offers an open-access database of 401(k) plan ratings, along with more powerful tools built on top of that for sale to the retirement plan industry. Then in April of this year BrightScope launched its Advisor Pages site, a public database of information about advisors (and not just retirement plan advisors). That site now follows 450,000 advisors, thanks to data from Finra, the SEC and the advisors themselves.

Mike Alfred, co-founder and CEO of BrightScope, told the trade pub that the new feature will include a screening process to ensure that reviews come genuine clients (not advisors themselves or competitors, for instance). And he insisted that BrightScope will work to make sure the site is compliance-friendly, though several RIAs told RIABiz that they're worried about the compliance implications of a public site with what could be considered endorsements. 

Edited by: Neil Anderson, Managing Editor


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