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Written by Tim Ullrich
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Monday, 23 November 2009 11:35 |
 Considering the popular Apple iPhone application commercials, one might wonder if there is an app for absolutely everything. Dog whistle? Check. Subway maps? Check. Is there an app for forecasting a child’s college education expenses? Check; thanks to AXA Equitable, there is.
The firm recently added an image to the public homepage that promotes their free College Savings iPhone application. In fact, the firm currently offers multiple financially-based applications, such as the Life Expectancy and Retirement Shortfall calculators.
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Written by Tim Ullrich
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Monday, 23 November 2009 09:19 |
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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Written by Tim Ullrich
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Wednesday, 18 November 2009 14:29 |
 As readers of our Credit Card Monitor Update know, Barclay’s recently announced their Gconomy Visa Card, which rewards customers for environmentally friendly actions like recycling. Bank of America also offers an eco-conscious card – the Brighter Planet EarthSmart Points Visa – which works to build renewable energy projects across the US.
While I can appreciate firms' desire to green themselves up and appeal to eco-conscious consumers, I find it a bit ironic that these the cards themselves are made with petroleum-based polyvinyl chloride acetate (PVCA), which is non-recyclable. Indeed, according to a study by TruCert Ltd., commissioned by MasterCard, the CO2 footprint of a card is 21 grams, including the energy and water consumed in production, roughly the equivalent of five bank checks, 13 dollar bills, or the gas to drive a Hummer 150 feet.
It would seem to me that if firms wanted to truly offer a green product, they might do some combination of the following:
- Print these eco-cards on a recyclable medium such as aluminum (if that's possible) or PET. This might be more expensive, but eco-conscious people would probably pay for it.
- Offer rewards points that could be used to purchase carbon offsets
- Make them exclusively web-based (that is, no paper statements or mailers)
It’s one thing to talk the talk of “green” cards, it’s another to design a green experience around the card that eco-conscious consumers can wholeheartedly support.
If you would like more information and to read this latest credit card update please click here. |
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Written by Tim Ullrich
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Thursday, 12 November 2009 16:16 |
 A recent article on Forbes.com discusses a number of online bank account fraud anecdotes, and assesses the various ways the victims' banks could have avoided the near catastrophic incidents simply by upgrading their online security systems. The article got us thinking about the best types of online account security offered by the Bank Monitor firms we track. It seems that although many firms offer basic online account verification features, like log-in security questions, images and codes, only a few take security to the next level when it comes to actual account navigation and individual online transactions.
Citibank offers perhaps the most in-depth online account protection, allowing customers to opt to be prompted for their ATM PIN before making any type of online transaction. Chase offers a somewhat similar feature, requiring clients to enter a one-time activation code when adding wire recipients, and also when account holders are logging in from an unrecognized computer. While U.S. Bank does not offer any special security codes, it provides a unique sound verification option in addition to the standard log-in security question requirements and image verification feature. U.S. Bank also requires clients to answer a security question each time they visit any page within the private site Security Center.
According to a statistic offered by Javelin Strategy & Research in the Forbes.com article, less than a tenth of banks call or text clients to confirm online transactions outside of email or private site message alerts. We find this statistic generally holds true across most Bank Monitor firms. To our knowledge, none of the firms we track actually call customers to confirm online activity. However, while no firms have called us, we were recently prompted to call Citibank for identity verification after initiating an internal transfer on the private site. The Citibank CSR we spoke with claimed that identity verification is done at random, and assured us that we would not have to call customer service every time we want to make an online transfer. Whether or not we will have to call Citibank for identity confirmation in the future, we were both annoyed by the transaction disruption and impressed by the firm's quest to ensure we were the true account holder.
Out of the four Bank Monitor firms that offer SMS message alerts, only Chase will text clients for online activity-related purposes. Furthermore, Chase will still only text clients when a payee has been added online - not to confirm actual online transactions. Although some firms definitely offer more advanced online account protection than others, it is certain that all of the firms we track could boost their current online account security with either one-time codes, tighter security requirements to access sections of the private site or online transaction-related SMS alerts.
Clearly, this is an area that could use some improvement.
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Written by Tim Ullrich
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Wednesday, 11 November 2009 16:16 |
 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.
Putnam’s new blog, the Retirement Savings Challenge, launched this month, hosts retirement-focused commentaries from the firm’s financial professionals. The blog is part of Putnam’s new initiative to re-evaluate current workplace savings programs. Curiously, if you enter retirementsavingchallenge.com (without “the” in the beginning) into your browser you’ll be redirected to ING’s retirement site.
Rethinking pensions
The volatility in financial markets over the past year has firms rethinking traditional metrics for retirement planning. John Hancock and Hartford Life are tailoring new annuity products to combine the fixed payout structure of traditional pension plans with the investment potential of popular defined benefit plans, such as the 401(k). Hartford’s recently released Personal Retirement Generator is a hybrid variable annuity that contains two investment components – a tax-deferred growth component and a separate income component called the personal pension account.
In other news…
- Fidelity Launches Global Trading Platform – The firm expanded its online brokerage platform by offering trading in twelve foreign markets. The ability to trade international securities is currently limited to the firm’s Gold Commission Level clients and allows those clients to trade with eight different local currencies.
- Help Me Choose – In coordination with the rebranding of several pre-existing credit cards and the release of a new ATM card, Citizens Bank introduced a new card selection tool called Help Me Choose. The tool helps determine an appropriate debit or credit card for users by asking them questions about their personal checking and combined account funds. While other firms offer interactive tools to aid prospects in selecting a credit card, Citizens Bank is the only firm that provides a tool to help select a suitable debit card.
- American Express Introduces New Tool – American Express launched a Money Manager Account Aggregator tool that allows AmEx charge card holders to manage both internal and external bank accounts in one place.
If you would like to learn more about our research, please click here. |
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Written by Tim Ullrich
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Tuesday, 10 November 2009 14:36 |
 As we mentioned in this week’s Mutual Fund Monitor – Advisor update, Franklin Templeton’s Mark Mobius has entered the social media waters by launching a blog and Twitter profile. Over the past several months, I have had many conversations with mutual fund executives about how best to tackle social media. Indeed, at the recent MFEA Star Awards conference, social media was one of the most-discussed topics. In light of this, it is refreshing to see Franklin Templeton launch this blog and there are some useful takeaways for fund executives to learn from:
- It’s a well designed blog separate from the main Franklin Templeton website. This creates a nice reading format without too many distractions.
- Photography is used throughout including an image of Mr. Mobius, which helps to personalize the blog.
- The blog integrates Twitter updates.
- Compliance issues are addressed without being overbearing. Specifically, the issue of comments is dealt with by saying comments are welcome, but “we won’t be posting them just yet. However, they will be read and will help guide future topics. So please, continue to send them my way.” This is similar to Vanguard’s initial approach to the comment issue when that firm launched www.vanguardblog.com. Eventually, the firm decided to publish select comments anonymously, an approach Franklin Templeton should consider if the feedback it receives is valuable.
- In what could be described as a compromise with regard to the comment issue, there is a post voting tool, which allows users to rate the post on a 5-point scale. While not as robust as comments, this allows at least some form of reader input. It also will help Mobius and Franklin Templeton to get a better feel for the topics that most interest readers.
These factors aside, the posts are interesting to read, which matters more than any comment or post rating feature. They don’t feel like a rehash of an investment or research report, but rather they add color to the broader emerging markets investing landscape. Granted, this is based on only two posts, but so far Franklin Templeton and Mr. Mobius deserve kudos for launching this blog.
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