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.

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A recent Schwab survey (discussed in this Financial Planning article) has two interesting data points:

• Less than half of surveyed brokers (46%) feel their employer’s brand helped them attract clients
• More than 80% feel their clients are loyal to them (that is, the advisor) and not the firm

Granted, this was a small survey (200 respondents), but it does highlight one of the central challenges that marketers at wirehouses have: how to achieve the right balance between supporting the advisor and creating loyalty to the firm directly with the investor.

Indeed, during many of our mystery shops over the years, brokers often lead with the value that he or she brings to the relationship over that of the firm. We’ve even had a few brokers tell us, “When it comes down to it, all the firms provide the same thing.” (!)

So the questions firms need to focus on are: Are we providing our advisors with all the tools and resources they need to build and grow their businesses? How can we stand out in the advisors’ minds as the one place to be to become the most successful? What can we do for their clients to make us the firm of choice?

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Like a trick-or-treater’s bag, heavy with an assortment of candy at the end of Halloween, this October offered a bit of everything…

Retirement gets social

After first launching a beta version in February 2008, TIAA-CREF made its retirement-focused online community, MyRetirement.org, publically available this month. MyRetirement is one of the broader online communities we have seen to date. Instead of focusing entirely on products, or featuring commentary exclusively from firm employees, TIAA-CREF provides customers with an open platform on which they can discuss retirement, as well as other topics of interest. TIAA-CREF’s decision to launch a beta version of the community was also significant; doing so allowed the firm to seed its discussion boards with user-generated content, meaning that when MyRetirement was officially opened, new users were able to join active conversations. Continue Reading »

We recently came across an InvestmentNews article highlighting new efforts by Merrill Lynch in the area of retirement income planning. Given the current state of the economy (and of investors’ retirement accounts), good planning is now more critical than ever to ensure that clients can retire comfortably - at least, relatively comfortably.

According to the article, the firm is starting a new retirement income training program for financial advisors called Merrill Lynch Retirement Income Framework, which is based on reviewing best practices of advisors across the country. While details of the training program are not provided, the article quotes Aimee DeCamillo, the firm’s head of personal retirement solutions, as saying that the program takes into consideration the risk of clients outliving their assets, inflation, health care costs and planning risks.

Merrill Lynch is also leveraging its connection with Bank of America, according to the article, by setting up a new program whereby clients with at least $250,000 in their retirement accounts can periodically transfer money to a Bank of America deposit account to provide convenient access to retirement income at local branches and ATMs. Clients can give their financial advisors permission to monitor the spending in their accounts to help assure that they remain on track.

Merrill Lynch has been one of the more outspoken firms with regard to retirement income planning for some time now. In fact, we published a research report on Retirement Income Planning almost two years ago, and even then, we highlighted Merrill Lynch as a leader. Despite the focus on retirement income, however, the firm has lacked the robust client-facing tools that we have seen from Fidelity. It will be interesting to see if Merrill Lynch will introduce new online features in conjunction with the new financial advisor push and Bank of America partnership.

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Fidelity Investments expanded its online brokerage platform today by offering international trading in 12 global markets. Currently, global trading is only open to the firm’s active investors segment – clients with Gold Commission Level – 120+ trades/year and $25,000 assets or $1 million in assets. Clients can trade directly from their brokerage accounts using U.S. Dollars; a separate global trading account is not required. Alternatively, clients can also trade using eight different local currencies. All listed foreign stocks and ETFs includes real-time quotes data and related research, all free.

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The big news for September revolves around Roth conversions. In the advisor realm, there was an influx of promotions surrounding the 2010 Roth conversion opportunity. A number of firms in our coverage groups are now supplying their advisors and brokers with new online marketing materials to help get ahead of the competition.

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New legislation set to take effect in 2010 removes the $100,000 MAGI limit for Roth IRA conversions, greatly expanding eligibility. Beginning in 2010, people can convert to a Roth IRA regardless of their income… but many investors may not have even known about it if they relied on information from their brokers alone. We simply have not seen many brokerage firms addressing this issue, until recently that is.

Our Merrill Lynch broker recently sent us an email with a couple of Q&A guides from the firm regarding the expanded Roth IRA conversion eligibility and this is the first time, in fact, that any of our brokers have addressed the issue. The upcoming change is a result of a provision in the Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act (TIPRA) of 2005.

This is certainly a big deal because Roth IRAs have a number of benefits not available in Traditional IRAs, and with the income restriction removed, many more individuals can take advantage of them. This is something that brokerage firms should promote, since it can be a better retirement savings option for some clients. It makes sense that we have not seen this highted heavily up to this point, since it does not go into effect for another four months. But as we get closer to the end of the year, we expect to see this become more front-and-center when firms talk about retirement savings.

TD Ameritrade has a history of acquisitions, and of taking a long time to integrate acquired companies into its operations. It took nearly five years for National Discount Brokers clients to be moved to Ameritrade.com. Likewise, it took over two and a half years for Ameritrade customers to reap the full benefit of the firm’s 2002 merger with Datek. The mid-2005 merger of Ameritrade and TD Waterhouse followed a similar pattern, taking two+ years to dissolve TD Waterhouse and form what is TD Ameritrade today.

When TD Ameritrade announced its purchase of thinkorswim in January 2009, we expected a repeat of this historical pattern. And to date, things have been very quiet. The merger has had no impact on thinkorswim clients, a good thing from their perspective; they continue to trade on the same platforms and speak to the same client service reps that they’re accustomed to. TD Ameritrade clients also haven’t experienced any interruptions or overhauls in service. That said, changes are clearly afoot, and sooner than we expected. Continue Reading »

July was a time for getting back to basics, it seems, as a number of firms introduced simplified or stripped-down versions of products. Credit card firms lead the way with changes from Bank of America, Wachovia and Wells Fargo.

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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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