Hardly a week goes by that you don’t see an article questioning whether or not advisors need to have a website. This question has become especially prevalent as blogs have grown in popularity. Is a blog enough? My answer is an emphatic no! Blogs are great and I recommend them to those with the discipline to commit to one – but your blog should complement, not replace your website; you still need a high-quality website.

(While I am focusing on Advisor websites, the same general principles hold for other financial services companies as well – investment managers, mutual fund companies, sponsors, etc.)

Most prospects and clients utilize the internet – at the end of the day, not having a website sets off more of a red flag than anything else. In this age of full transparency – let’s not forget Madoff – the last thing you want is for someone to question your legitimacy. For prospects, a good website is a great way to set your credibility before they even meet you. For clients – who are likely to want on-line access to their accounts – why not provide the portal so that they can always see what is new on your site when they sign into their accounts? What a great – and free – way to highlight your latest newsletter for example.

A 2011 survey by Fidelity found that 44% of millionaires looked to the internet when searching for money managers. 75% of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney’s advisors now have websites as do about 80% of Merrill Lynch advisors. Especially for an independent RIA, how do you explain not having one when so many of your competitors do?

Now, some advisors think that not having a website has a certainty aura and mystery in and of itself. They prefer to have clients give prospects a verbal referral. To me this thinking is outdated. It assumes that the prospect can find you without the internet, which may not be the case. There might be some exceptions – advisors who get all of their clients from one small geographic area for example – but this to me is more the exception than the rule.

Finally, and importantly – your website has to be very good – it has to be both visually appealing and have top-notch content which differentiates you from the competition.

Remember all of those articles I alluded to up front? It drives me crazy when they say that the website can be a simple electronic business card, or that you can do it yourself for around $500. No. No. No. If you are going to have a website – it needs to reflect the same high quality of your entire business. Remember the old saying, if you can’t do it right…..

A new year brings new challenges.

For many it’s about the balance between growing the business on one hand and providing good client service on the other. Luckily, these choices are not mutually exclusive.

Finding a balance between your time, energy and focus may be easier than you think. Our newest White Paper, entitled “2012 Success – It’s As Easy As 1-2-3,” highlights three basic concepts that underlie successful businesses:

• Differentiate yourself from the competition
• Segregate your clients and prospects into niche market segments
• Communicate consistently and effectively

2011 has certainly been an interesting year – with many economic, financial and political issues unresolved as the year ends. What this bodes for next year is that 2012 will be another tumultuous year – in fact a year very much like this one.

In no particular order, therefore, my top ten predictions for 2012:

10 – The Presidential election is the Republicans to lose. I retain this view even as the Republicans (led by the House) are self-destructing and opening the door for Obama. If the candidate is Romney, Huntsman or someone with similar moderate views that can attract independents AND there is no third-party candidate, then Obama is out. If, on the other hand, the candidate is Gingrich, Paul, Bachman or some other candidate who can not attract independents AND/OR a third-party candidate emerges, then we will have four more years of Obama. I know that that is a lot of “ifs,” but we are still early in the race. My money is on a Romney presidency starting in 2013.

9 – The Democrats will retain control of the Senate, although with a smaller majority, in part because like in 2008, the Republicans will put up some unelectable candidates (can anyone say Rhode Island?). The Republicans will retain the House of Representatives, which will look pretty much the same as it does now. Sorry Nancy.

8 – The Supreme Court will uphold the legality of Obama’s Health Care plan, but this will make it an even more polarizing issue in the election (since the decision should come in the Spring). If a Republican is elected President, it will be continue as an even more contentious subject in 2013 and beyond, as the legislative branch will take the lead in repealing parts of the plan.

7 – The stock markets will end slightly up for the year, helped by a year-end relief rally after the election. Volatility should be relatively low, as many investors will stay on the sidelines because of all of the political uncertainty. Another “lost” year like this one. It will remain a stock pickers market – driven largely by earnings in the few sectors of the economy that will do well.

6 – The U.S. economy will not go into recession, though following continuing turmoil in Europe, will get dangerously close. Unemployment will dip somewhat then increase again to about 9% at election time because there will be no significant job bills enacted and political gridlock will dampen demand. Housing will remain in the dumps. The positive economic news of the past month is deceiving.

5 – Europe will go into recession (maybe not all countries but as a whole). There will have to be a number of emergency summits once again, as everyone realizes that the actions enacted in 2011 were only band-aid measures and that real problems remain. The divergence between the stronger Northern European countries and weaker Southern European ones will continue.

4 – The Euro will survive 2012 – barely – and I imagine a year from now the outlook for its continuation past 2012 will be very bleak. Back to those summits for a second – hopefully there won’t be 8 or 9 like there were this year!

3 – The Occupy movements will continue sporadically throughout the year as economic conditions stagnate. I don’t think they will pick-up significantly, however, and absent the emergence of any real leadership – to voice a unified concern or theme in a cohesive manner – the November elections might signal their end.

As for the financial services industry:

2 – At least one major brokerage firm will be sold or spun off by its bank-parent (this excludes Morgan Keegan; in this case, if MK is not sold by the end of the first quarter, I predict that Regions Financial itself will be gobbled up by a larger bank). The bank/brokerage marriages have in large part not worked, so 2012 could be the beginning of the end for many of these relationships. Hint – ML.

1 – The wirehouses will continue to lose advisors to the independent, RIA and semi-independent channels. The attractiveness of working for one of the big four is just not what it used to be – both from a reputational point of view as well as an ease of doing business one. The wirehouses aren’t going to disappear though – just continue to become less dominant.

In any case, 2012 should be another fun and interesting year.

Happy Holidays and a Happy and Healthy New Year to all – regardless of the macro-world, may 2012 bring you and your family health and prosperity.

Dear MF Global Board of Directors:

What were you thinking? Have you been asleep since 2008? Do you think that just because John Corzine has an impressive resume you should have given him carte blanche to leverage your firm like that? Did you ever consider  the more than 1,000 employees, and their families, that you have now negatively impacted? Where were the institutional and compliance controls that would have alerted you to the co-mingling of client asses with your own? Really?

(I waited a few weeks before I wrote this to cool down … But I  really haven’t!)

These are just a few of the questions that I would like to pose to both the Board and to John Corzine. While I don’t expect them to necessarily think about the rest of the industry before they plan their strategy, what they have effectively done is give all of us who work in the industry another black eye just at the worst possible time – while arguments over the proper level of regulation still abound and the “Wall Street” v. “Main Street” debate intensifies.

What is honestly surprising to me is that this entire affair hasn’t gotten more bad press – because it certainly is a poster child for those that want to regulate Wall Street more and accentuate the divisiveness that now permeates our country. I’m really not sure why this lack of outrage has been the case – especially when the story first broke. The past two weeks has been more explainable, as the scandal at Penn State has made all other stories pale in comparison.

But at some point this story will come back to more prominence. The reputation of John Corzine has probably been tarnished beyond repair; so has to some extent the reputation of Goldman Sachs, as the actions of its former employees always reflect back on the firm. But the saddest thing is that some in the industry have learned little from the events of the past few years – and now thousands of employees and customers are suffering. It is now reported that more than $1.2 billion is missing and may never be recovered.

What were you thinking?