From time to time, we update our passwords to ensure we have the best security possible. While technological advances in website security have made it safer to manage your finances online, users are still wise to keep their login passwords fresh. Fortunately for us, firms have made this a fairly streamlined process, with the Change Password function usually in a quick and easy location. While we are all in favor of a streamlined process (consider changing around 60 of them at once, like we do), this chore should not be too simple; for safety precautions, we understand the need for ID verification questions.

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Descriptions of what makes an appropriate investor for a given product are a useful, but underutilized complement to product details. Especially with products as complex and controversial as variable annuities, prospective clients could use extra indication if it could be right for them. However, only six of the Annuity Monitor websites have consistently included such details with product information. One of the best examples comes from Vanguard, which provides specific “Who Should Invest” pages for products such as the Vanguard Variable Annuity. A concise list suggests the goals, minimum investment amounts and other tax and savings characteristics that the product fits. Fidelity, ING, John Hancock, Lincoln and Mass Mutual as well all specifically address such criteria within product information.

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A roundup of notable articles this week (seems the business press is focused on Citigroup):

• Where Pandit is Taking Citi (BusinessWeek) - A look at Citi’s CEO strategy and why he still believes in the one-stop-shop model for financial services.
• Will Clients & Brokers Bolt (BusinessWeek) - Given the troubles with some of Citi’s hedge funds, BW questions whether top brokers and clients will bolt for the competition.
• Edwards Investment Gurus Taking Over at Wachovia (InvestmentNews) - Discusses how Wachovia’s Masters program (the firm’s separately managed account) is being run by Edwards vet Michael Havey.
• The Taming of Merrill Lynch (Portfolio) - More of a (longish) profile on John Thain, but provides some insights into Merrill’s current challenges and how Thain aims to tackle them.
• Can Anyone Run Citigroup? (Fortune) - From the Fortune 500 issue, this is Fortune’s synopsis on the 8th-ranked firm.
• Wealth Mismanagement (Economist) - A recount of what went wrong at UBS with regard to the mortgage-backed asset mess.

Dateline NBC correspondent Chris Hansen, of To Catch A Predator fame, has turned his attention from online sexual deviants to a different kind of predator that preys primarily on the elderly. Reports of unscrupulous investment professionals pushing annuities on unsuited investors are nothing new in the financial service world. The annuity industry has fought a long battle to change the public’s poor image of their product in an effort to regain investor confidence. While we are convinced this is a case of a few bad apples, a black cloud continues to hang over these retirement products as allegations of unethical sales behavior continue to surface. 

Much of the stigma surrounding annuities can be attributed to the negative publicity fixed annuities, specifically the Indexed variety, have received over the past few years. The biggest culprit in the inappropriate sale of fixed annuities is Allianz Life, the nation’s leading seller of indexed annuities. The firm has been involved in numerous lawsuits since 2004 with the most recent being a 10.05 million dollar settlement in California on charges that their advisors replaced 126 fixed annuities for unsuited elderly customers ages 84 or 85.

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While so much attention across the financial services industry these days is focused on baby boomers, we discovered one site gearing up to cater to the “next generation” – Gen X. With its new Schwab Money and More site, Charles Schwab is expanding its efforts to market to a younger audience.  The new site is certainly visually appealing, with plenty of large, easy-to-read text, images and Flash-based content. Videos of Schwab client interviews are even embedded within the site. Users will find a variety of tools and planning calculators. From the moment we visited the homepage, it was clear who the target audience is. The homepage highlights issues that many investors in their 20s and 30s, in particular, face – such as how to get out of debt, how marriage will affect money and how to start investing without a lot of money.

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Have you ever wondered if there’s an ideal location for a search tool on your website? Or if there’s a “best practice” for account comparison tools? Or if the names of your main menu tabs are conventional and, if not, whether this hurts the usability of your site? These are the kinds of questions we help our clients answer on a daily basis, drawing on our deep knowledge of retail financial services websites and our understanding of Web usability principles circa 2008. These are also the kinds of questions that serve as the focal point for a new research project we’re on the verge of completing – the Corporate Insight Website Usability Guide.

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With the introduction of The Valley Forge Funds, Vanguard will break into the (as of now) niche managed payout fund business. As reported in a recent Ignites article that Vanguard plans roll out the three funds – Vanguard Managed Payout Growth Focus fund, Vanguard Managed Payout Growth and Distribution Fund, and Vanguard Managed Payout Distribution Focus fund – on April 21, 2008. We have been waiting some time for this announcement. In a report we published a few months back on Retirement Income Planning, we reported that the firm’s payout funds were still pending SEC approval.

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The Baby Boomer generation– by virtue of its size alone – has unprecedented financial clout, and embraces a new attitude toward retirement that emphasizes an active lifestyle. Over the next 20 years, another eight Boomers will retire every hour. For financial marketers this represents not only a major opportunity, but a significant challenge.

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We publish a regular monthly newsletter that offers information and insight into our syndicated monthly reports, as well as a "month-in-review" section we call News & Highlights. As some of you may not subscribe to our newsletter (why not? it’s free), we will begin posting it here on a monthly basis.

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This week’s news roundup includes:

• With Non-Compete Expired, Ameriprise Charges Ahead (InvestmentNews) - Ameriprise to launch their own credit card now that the non-compete with American Express has expired.
• The Four Things a Service Business Must Get Right (Harvard Business Review) - An excellent read for managers in the financial services industry. On a number of occasions, the article refers to Commerce Bank for best practices.
• Mobile Banking: This Time for Real (BAI Banking Strategies) - It would appear that there is more momentum behind mobile banking this time around.
• Dead Tree Medium No Longer: For Many Marketers Print Outperforms Digital (Knowledge@Wharton) - Thanks to variable-data printing, companies can now tap purchase-history databases to design, create and print entirely personalized catalogs that cross-sell products and services to individual consumers.
• The Day $2 Billion Walked out the Door (Fortune) - A review of the recent bank panic that swept E*TRADE and how the firm continues to cope.
• What’s Wrong With Wall St. - and How to Fix It (Fortune) - Fortune’s take on the problems in financial services.