Monthly statements are often the primary form of communication between a firm and its clients, allowing brokerages to show each customer – clearly and simply – what they own and what they’ve done with their account recently. Given the challenging market environment, now more than ever it is essential for brokerage firms to provide a clear and complete account review to their clients via the account statement. Every year, Corporate Insight reviews the statements we receive through our client accounts by running them through our rigorous benchmarking audit criteria. Our analysis focuses on a number of different categories including design, content, customization and “green” issues such as e-delivery.

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Providing a fresh take on a still relatively fresh idea (direct savings accounts), newcomer SmartyPig has earned significant attention thanks to its high interest rates and unique savings plans. Add to that a recent investment from Red McCombs that, according to American Banker, significantly enhances the firm’s marketing reach, and SmartyPig is suddenly a firm to watch in the online savings arena.

Below, we take a quick look at SmartyPig’s offerings and list some of its relative strengths and weaknesses. It bears mentioning that we have not opened an account with SmartyPig, and as such we have not yet viewed SmartyPig’s private site. Continue Reading »

While we don’t monitor third-party account aggregators like Mint, Wesabe and Cake Financial nearly as closely as we do our financial institution coverage groups, we do like to keep an eye on developments among those popular personal finance services. We receive a number of periodic emails from aggregation services where we’ve established accounts - financial summaries, account alerts, new discussions, etc. We had one in our inbox recently from Mint saying how much they’ve missed our visits and encouraging us to check in. While this was definitely not a unique or surprising communication, we found this interesting in light of a few trends among aggregators and financial services in general. Continue Reading »

When we first reviewed financial services’ involvement in social media in our report, Social Media: Trends and Tactics in the Financial Services Industry, released in late 2008, we found that mutual fund firms were the slowest segment to accept social media into their marketing plans. In fact, none of the 24 total firms that we track for Mutual Fund Monitor and Advisor had even launched Twitter accounts at that time.

Recently, however, we’ve seen a definite shift towards a slow acceptance of social media, mainly in Twitter. As mentioned in a Corporate Insight blog post in May, Vanguard Blazes a Social Media Trail for Mutual Fund Firms, it was noted that Vanguard had just taken major strides in the mutual fund social media world by starting a blog, registering a Facebook page, and launching a Twitter account. We projected that we would see more of the same from other mutual fund firms. Continue Reading »

June was a busy month as firms, now well past the seasonal crunch of tax season and the radical market swings from earlier this year, made changes across the board, introducing new products and marketing campaigns, and some unique new tools as well. Continue Reading »

According to the Alzheimer’s Association, as many as 5.3 million people in the United States are currently living with Alzheimer’s disease, a figure that is increasing every year due to the growing population of elderly people. While the medical field continues to develop new drugs that increase the lifespan of humans, the financial and economic ramifications of a growing elderly population should be considered. Continue Reading »

When the dust settled on a tumultuous first quarter, the writing was on the wall for variable annuity issuers: adapt your product or continue to lose market share to safer, cheaper alternatives. According to LIMRA, U.S. variable annuity sales were down 27% compared to the first quarter of 2008. During the same period, fixed annuities outsold variable products by over four billion dollars, rising a startling 78% in contrast to Q1 2008 totals.

The response from firms was emphatic, resulting in sweeping changes to risky product features as well as the discontinuation of numerous VA products. Hit hardest were the popular VA living benefit riders whose gaudy guarantees became unsustainable as the economic downturn intensified. Continue Reading »

Rarely is a mutual fund firm’s website synonymous with the word “entertainment,” so T. Rowe Price has clearly gone against the grain by teaming up with Walt Disney Resorts Online to create the Great Piggy Bank Adventure online game. The new game is a good way for parents to introduce children to basic money management principles, allowing users to select a goal that can be achieved through earning and saving “truffles” (the game’s monetary system) and making wise financial decisions throughout the game’s multiple levels. Goal items include a pet rabbit, an art canvas, a toy helicopter, a tree-fort and a basketball hoop. Continue Reading »