Australia's top wealth managers have appalling websites that are failing to attract cashed up baby boomers, researchers claim.
US listed research house Forrester has released the results of a study into the public sites of Australia's five largest retirement income providers: Attracting the Retirement Dollars of Baby Boomers.
All the wealth managers failed to pass methodology used to assess the experience of web users, despite evidence that shows baby boomers love to use the internet to manage their finances, the report's author Alyson Clarke said.
"The findings are appalling - not one firm came even close to a passing score for online user experience," Clarke said.
"All sites provided an uninspiring online experience and contained major design flaws like illegible text, lack of privacy policies and the absence of key information.
"If firms want to capitalise on the upcoming retirement boom, they must prioritise fixing their websites."
MLC was the only provider to pass all four general categories of value, navigation, presentation and trust - beating AMP, Axa Australia, Colonial First State Investments (CFS) and ING Australia.
Website navigation was the weakest area, with CFS managing to score the worst with a score of minus 8 out of a possible plus 12.
"We found the public websites of AMP, AXA, CFS, ING and MLC to be well below par in many areas," the report said.
However, the scores still exceeded those of the four major banks.
In June last year Forrester applied its methodology to the websites of ANZ, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, National Australia Bank and Westpac.
"All the wealth managers managed to well and truly exceed the top bank score of minus 4, which ANZ achieved," the report said.
All four contain major design flaws that cost the banks money because they force customers to use the more expensive call centre and branch to competitors out of frustration, researchers said.
