E*TRADE Group Inc. in the U.S. is launching its newly engineered E*TRADE Personal Money Management for Financial Advisors, an online investment resource for financial advisors to analyze and hire professional money managers for their clients.

E*TRADE’s Personal Money Management provides financial advisors with the tools and information to access, evaluate, select and monitor more than 40 private money managers with a range of more than 70 investment styles. A search capability allows the advisor to choose private money managers for clients based on a number of targeted criteria including portfolio characteristics, investment style and risk measurements as well as tax-effective strategies.

“Because financial advisors are a valuable channel in targeting and reaching mass-affluent customers, E*TRADE has always envisioned the advisor market as an important link in our high tech/high touch strategy,” said Mitchell Caplan, managing director, North America and chief global banking and wealth management officer of E*TRADE Group Inc.

“In the past it has been difficult for advisors to find detailed information about money managers,” continued Caplan. “Now E*TRADE has created a tool that provides advisors with a way to efficiently analyze money managers based on a robust array of comparable information to better service their clients.”

The feature gives advisors tools to develop customized asset allocation proposals including detailed information about the manager’s investment style, capabilities and performance based on customers’ specific investment goals. It gives financial advisors the ability to customize portfolios to include or exclude specific securities or market sectors for their clients. After hiring a private money manager, both customers and financial advisors can view their holdings in the online account, as well as the performance of the account on a daily basis. E*TRADE launched its Personal Money Management directly to consumers last February. The service is available directly to consumers or through financial advisors at a minimum of US$100,000 of investable assets per manager.