When someone asks who they should hire to rewrite or rebuild a financial services website, the honest first answer is another question: what exactly is broken? A website can fail because the words are weak, because the structure hides the right pages, because the platform is slow or hard to edit, or because nobody can publish without waiting on a developer. Each of those problems points to a different kind of hire.
This guide is written for the person who has to make that choice: a marketing lead, an operations manager or a founder at a wealth firm, lender, advisory practice, insurer or fintech. It is also written by an agency, so the bias is worth stating plainly. Several of the options below are better than hiring us, depending on the situation.
Start by naming the problem
Before comparing vendors, write one sentence that finishes this line: “The website is failing because ____.” Then check it against four common causes.
- The message is unclear. Visitors cannot tell what you do, who it is for or why to trust you. This is usually a writing and positioning problem.
- The structure is wrong. The right page exists but nobody finds it, or one page tries to serve three audiences. This is an information architecture problem.
- The platform is in the way. The site is slow, breaks on mobile, or cannot be updated without a developer. This is an engineering problem.
- The process is broken. Disclosures go out of date, edits wait weeks for approval, and nobody is sure who owns what. This is a governance problem, and it shapes the build more than most people expect.
Most failing sites have more than one of these. That matters, because a copywriter cannot fix a platform problem and a developer cannot fix an unclear message.
The five realistic options
A copywriter or content strategist
This is the right hire when the site loads quickly, works on every device, is easy to edit and the structure is sound, but the words are vague, outdated or written for the wrong reader. A good financial services copywriter also understands that some language has to pass compliance review, so they write in a way that survives edits.
The limit is scope. If the new copy needs new page types, a different navigation or new forms, a copywriter will hand you a document and you will still need someone to build it.
A specialist financial services agency
A specialist team has seen the review cycles, the disclosure patterns and the approval politics before. That saves time, and it is worth paying for when your compliance process is heavy.
The trade-off is that “specialist” can mean a template with finance language on top. Ask what is actually different in how they scope and build, not just whose logo is on the portfolio page.
A generalist design and development agency
A generalist agency can be the better choice when the problem is mainly engineering quality: performance, accessibility, a clean CMS setup and a safe migration. The question is whether they ask about governance and data handling without being prompted. If they only talk about visual direction, keep looking.
A freelancer
A strong freelancer can be excellent value for a small, well-defined site. The risk is continuity. If one person owns design, build, hosting and fixes, you need documented access, a handover plan and a clear answer to what happens when they are unavailable. For a regulated business, that answer should exist before the contract is signed.
An in-house team
Hiring in-house makes sense when the site changes constantly and someone will own it for years. It is slower to start and harder to staff, and a single developer is a single point of failure. Many firms combine an in-house owner with an outside team for the rebuild itself.
What financial services changes about the brief
A financial services site is judged on trust before it is judged on design. That changes what a good partner will ask you in the first conversation. We cover the full argument in what makes financial services website development different, but the practical points are these.
Who approves what. A good partner asks who reviews disclosures, fee language and risk statements, how long that takes, and how the website will support that process. If the answer is “a developer edits the page”, the workflow is a risk.
Accessibility as a requirement. Forms, calculators and dense information need keyboard navigation, visible focus and a sensible heading structure. Rules differ by country and regulator, so treat this as a conversation with your own advisers. If you want a baseline first, an accessibility audit shows what is failing before you scope the rebuild.
Form and data handling. Every form is a data decision: what is collected, where it goes, who can see it and how long it is kept. These answers should exist before launch.
Search continuity. A rebuild that changes URLs without a redirect plan can quietly remove pages that already bring visitors. A good partner asks which URLs earn visibility today and plans around them. See our notes on website migration for how that planning works, and the SEO service page for the wider picture.
Questions to ask every candidate
Use the same list with every vendor so the answers can be compared.
- How will you work with our compliance and legal reviewers, and what does an edit cycle look like after launch?
- What will you check about our current site before you quote?
- How do you handle redirects, so pages that already earn traffic keep it?
- How do you test accessibility, and is that included in the scope?
- Which integrations (CRM, scheduling, document portals) have you connected before, and what broke?
- Who owns the code, the domain, the hosting and the content when the project ends?
- What is not included in the quote?
- What does support look like after launch, and who answers when something fails?
A vendor who answers these concretely is worth more than one with a polished portfolio and vague answers.
Red flags
- A fixed quote before anyone has looked at the current site.
- No questions about governance, integrations or existing URLs.
- Promises about rankings. Nobody can honestly guarantee search positions, and a vendor who tries is selling confidence, not engineering.
- No clear answer on who owns hosting, code and accounts.
- A process that moves straight to visual design with no technical review.
A practical way to decide
If you can describe the problem in one sentence, the choice often makes itself. Words only: copywriter. Words plus structure plus platform: agency. Constant updates and long-term ownership: in-house, possibly with outside help for the build.
If you cannot describe the problem, do not hire for the solution yet. Get a neutral look at the current state first. PageScore is a free automated first look at performance, technical SEO and AI-search readiness. It cannot see everything, which is why we also offer a human-reviewed Website Diagnostic for sites where the question is bigger than a score.
When you are ready to scope a rebuild, our financial services website design page explains how we approach it, and the pricing guide explains what changes the cost of a project without pretending a generic price list is useful. Whoever you hire, make them earn the decision with specific answers.
Frequently asked
- Should I hire a copywriter or a web agency to rewrite my financial services website?
- Hire a copywriter when the structure, platform and speed are fine and only the words are wrong. Hire an agency when the copy needs to change together with page structure, navigation, forms or the CMS. If you are unsure, run an audit first so the problem is named before anyone is hired.
- Do I need an agency that only works with financial services firms?
- Not necessarily. What matters is that the team understands review and approval workflows, accessibility, data handling in forms and search continuity during a rebuild. Ask for evidence of that thinking in how they scope work, not just a list of past finance clients.
- Is a freelancer enough for a financial services website?
- Sometimes. A strong freelancer can handle a small, well-defined site. The risk is continuity: if one person owns the build, hosting and fixes, you need documented access, a handover plan and a clear answer to what happens when they are unavailable.
- What should I check before hiring anyone to rebuild my site?
- Check the current technical health, the URLs that already earn search visibility, your accessibility baseline, your list of integrations and who currently approves content. These five things decide scope far more than page count or visual style.