Resource for independent financial advisors

SINGAPORE - A resource for the new breed of independent financial advisors (IFAs) ippAdvisors.com, a product of IPP Capital Advisory, seeks to help emerging IFAs communicate and serve their clients more effectively.

Mr. Victor Ang, Chairman of ippAdvisors noted that the lack of sufficient in-depth research of investments and institutional biasness are today's greatest problems that hinders proper financial investment.

"We differ from a dot-com in that our advisory panel consists of people with strong industry backing from insurance, banking and IT. Unlike most B2C websites, ippAdvisors seeks not to dis-intermediate the financial planner, and does not do business at the expense of, but instead in cooperation with, the financial advisor to meet their clients' needs more effectively." said Mr. Ang.

Targeted at IFAs, ippAdvisors.com's role is to provide IFAs the technical knowledge behind the large number of financial products and convey it to the public. The website contains a wealth of financial investment information that is both accessible by the IFA and his/her clientele.

The website features 5 main components which provide IFAs with up-to-date financial news, new financial products, personal training courses, advisory services and a client management center.

In alliance with Starhub, ippAdvisors.com will have 21 secure servers that will hold the database of these IFAs. The website boasts of breaking news straight from Reuters every 5 minutes.

The client management center handles the profile of all the IFAs clientele and has features that automate birthday reminder, emails regarding new products and even personalized homepages. Registration costs S$1200 a year.

Its main source of revenue is derived from the commissions made by the IFAs. Revenue is expected to reach S$20 million in 2001 and in $100 million in the next 3 to 4 years. ippAdvisors.com also plans to move into Malaysia and Hong Kong in the near future.