Curiously enough, even though it is an all-Internet bank, Atlanta-based $2.5 billion NetBank also uses AdviceAmerica as a way to link customers with financial advisors.

Peter Rossi, the director of wealth management at NetBank and a former financial advisor, sees the value of AdviceAmerica in its efficiency and its flexibility.

The first couple of meetings between an advisor and client are getting acquainted time while the advisor tries to get an idea of the client’s financial picture. Eventually, when he has enough information, the advisor goes back to the office and enters the data into a tool. With AdviceAmerica, the client does that work, and when he is ready to talk with an advisor – and NetBank encourages this personal contact over its Web site – the information is all there for the advisor to see. A large percentage of NetBank customers use the planning tool without an advisor, but Rossi believes the personal contact will build loyalty, if the client will agree.

“Our customers are fairly sophisticated in financial products and in their understanding of technology and they tend to be price savvy as well. It’s a very attractive demographic.” Unlike some other firms, he added, NetBank is not pursuing the high-net-worth individual.

“We are really going after the middle affluent.”

Rossi particularly likes AdviceAmerica because it is modular, cumulative and flexible. With traditional wirehouses, an advisor puts the data into a tool and presents the client with a handsome printed report, which can be stale upon presentation if the client’s life has changed. In that case, the process starts all over; with AdviceAmerica, a change in situation simply requires changing a few data points.

Technology may soon improve the interactions of clients and advisors with tools like video teleconferencing so one advisor can work with many clients efficiently.

“I think you will see firms start to deliver the customer experience with a live advisor on your computer screen. That would be far more efficient than a bank where advisors go from branch to branch and have to schedule appointments.”