Published by Ian Lundahl on 05 Feb 2010
January was an interesting month with firms wasting no time introducing new products and advertising campaigns. There was a new contest from Fidelity, new products from American Express and AXA Equitable, a new statement design from Vanguard and upcoming statement changes announced from Barclays and Discover.
Published by Michael Ellison on 28 Jan 2010
FINRA this week published guidelines around social media in Regulatory Notice 10-06. While I’m no lawyer, there appears to be a few things that were clarified with this notice:
Published by Michael Ellison on 15 Jan 2010
InvestmentNews posted an interesting piece yesterday covering 8 ways that wholesalers get blacklisted by advisors. There are some good things here, but they are probably best summed up by one comment: “Be a good business partner.”
Really, this is professional services selling 101 and the examples posted here should be obvious to anyone who has been in sales. The fact that InvestmentNews posted this shows people are still violating the fundamentals. Some might argue that this is a reason to rely on e-wholesaling. My take is that while there are many reasons to pursue an e-wholesaling strategy, it should not be the only distribution method of your wholesaling team. People are still important, but if your people cannot add value to the relationship they have with advisers, they are wasting your clients’ time and your money.
What do you think? What is the right balance between e-wholesaling and live reps?
Report: Practice Management Tools for Advisors
This report examines the sales topics and practice management materials available behind login on advisor sites. While firms frequently release sales ideas and find ways for advisors to sell their products, back-office issues frequently go ignored. Since practice management skills are essential for building a business, firms should take the time to provide advisors with tips for gaining and retaining clients, in addition to standard product-selling information.
To read more information, please visit our website.
Published by Michael Ellison on 13 Jan 2010
After months of discussing social media here on our blog and in our research, we thought we’d kick off 2010 by expanding our own efforts in this realm by enhancing our commentary with video. So, welcome to our first of what we hope will be an ongoing series of video interviews and comments with our analysts.
Published by David Rosenberg on 11 Jan 2010
Things have been quiet on the brokerage commissions war front for some time now but that may be coming to an end soon enough.
e-Monitor tracked firm Charles Schwab announced it will lower online stock and ETF trade rates from $12.95 to $8.95 for all investors, on January 19, 2010. Previously, the discounted $8.95 rate was only available to active traders, clients who maintained $1 million in household assets or executed 120+ trades per year. Charles Schwab lowed its commissions for active traders in early 2008, but has not lowered the commission for all client segments since back in 2006, when the commission dropped from $19.95 to $12.95. Continue Reading »
Published by tim.ullrich on 11 Jan 2010
Franklin Templeton updated their public and private sites about two weeks ago and our Mutual Fund Monitor clients were provided with information about it in the December 28, 2009 MFM Update. I thought our non-client readers might be interested in seeing the changes too and it’s a good way to show off what’s typically found inside one of our Mutual Fund Monitor Updates.
Here’s a preview of the preview: Franklin Templeton’s recent public and private sites changes added an investor-friendly private homepage that features account information and an updated navigational menu. Usability is also improved thanks to a new “I Am Here To” menu that provides quicklinks to key tools. Despite changes to the site’s appearance, most site content remains the same. Continue Reading »
Published by Ian Lundahl on 07 Jan 2010
As 2010 begins, we take a look back at the changes made across the financial services industry in the last month of 2009.
Of particular note, some credit card firms started to get into the holiday spirit with charity-focused giving initiatives and new tools were introduced across several industries.
Published by jaclyn on 30 Dec 2009
We wish you success and happiness in the New Year. Thank you for your business and continued trust you put in our research. We look forward to working with you as we enter 2010.
The Corporate Insight Team
Published by tim.ullrich on 23 Dec 2009
We’re getting ready to publish the latest e-Monitor Report and this one is about email support. Specifically, the report looks at the availability, usefulness and responses from publicly available non-client emails. We examined the 20 brokerage firms tracked by e-Monitor and looked for publicly available prospect email tools or links. The initial thought was that all firms would surely provide something as simple as an email link - after all, it IS the new millennium! Turns out there is a little more variation than you’d think.
Published by Michael Ellison on 16 Dec 2009
Take a look at the statement image. On it, you’ll see roughly $30,000 in fraudulent transactions. On 9/26 there are seven transactions, in Helsinki Finland for just under $5,000 each. How these charges made it through any kind of reasonable security check is beyond us.
It should be noted that the cardholder, one of our employees, has never set foot in Finland. Continue Reading »
