Published by David Rosenberg on 04 May 2010
And the war rages on… With its announcement today of slashed stock and ETF commissions, Vanguard went from charging the highest commission among self-directed firms that we track to among the lowest. Effective today, all of Vanguard’s 46 ETFs will be available to clients commission-free. Continue Reading »
Published by Ian Lundahl on 08 Apr 2010
March was a busy month for the Corporate Insight tracked firms. Perhaps the most notable changes this month took place in the credit card space, as every firm in our Credit Card Monitor coverage group made announcements about changes relating to the CARD Act. Every firm posted notices alerting customers that their statements had been made available online. Additionally, several firms, including American Express, HSBC and U.S. Bank, either updated or announced updates to their monthly statements. HSBC also removed its Rush Payment service, which allowed customers to post same-day payments for a fee of $15. Prior to eliminating Rush Payment, HSBC had been the only Credit Card Monitor firm to charge customers for same-day online payments. Continue Reading »
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 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 Ian Lundahl on 11 Nov 2009
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 »
Published by Michael Ellison on 22 Oct 2009
On Wednesday, I had the pleasure of moderating a panel discussion at the annual MFEA STAR awards in Chicago focusing on social media within the asset management industry. It was a lively discussion and a topic that is clearly on the minds of fund executives. Over the course of the day, there were a few recurring themes and issues, which I thought I’d highlight here as they are relevant to any financial firm exploring the social media waters: Continue Reading »
Published by Ian Lundahl on 05 Oct 2009
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.
Published by Ian Lundahl on 17 Aug 2009
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.
Published by Jeffrey Latzer on 12 Aug 2009
Fresh on the heels of our Mutual Fund Monitor Report on Online Security comes word out of the Black Hat security conference that ubiquitous page verification technology SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) may have some loopholes in the way it functions with Internet browsers.
Mutual fund firms will clearly wince at this news, as our report found that all 18 MFM companies employ SSL for security. The good news is that potential breaches such as these were discovered before they were nefariously implemented, so it gives security and browser developers a head start in plugging the holes.
Continue Reading »
