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Written by Tim Ullrich
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Thursday, 22 October 2009 20:03 |
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:
- If nothing else, firms need to employ social media tools to monitor their brand. Even if you are not going to start tweeting, blogging, bleating (ok, I made that one up) or anything, you should at least be monitoring the cyber world to see what people are saying about you. (One service whose name kept coming up here was BuzzMetrics - note that we have never used them nor do I know much about them so this is NOT an endorsement, they were simply referenced a few times).
- Of course, if you need to monitor the situation, you need access to the tools. Several people mentioned that their firms' IT departments restrict access to sites like FaceBook, YouTube, etc. Clearly, this is a priority for financial marketers and brand/product managers. You need to work with your executive management and IT to at least get specific people access to these sites.
- Before you engage in a broader social media strategy, you first need to get your online house in order. By that, we mean you need your website up to industry standards (at least). It makes little sense to have a successful social media strategy that draws people to your site only to have the site lose the sale.
- Once you've decided you want to employ a social media strategy, you need to work with management and compliance to get internal buy-in. This comment is repeated so much that it almost sounds trite. Unfortunately, it's true. The real problem, then, is how to do this. It's an area where you might need to be creative. One of the panel participants was able to get compliance buy-in because the compliance officer used Facebook personally. This meant he understood the value - and perceived risks - and was able to engage with the marketing team in an effective way.
- A good point was raised about the limits compliance places on social media and what value is left as a result. For example, if in order to get a Facebook page up and running a firm needs to shut off commentary, reserve the right to remove fan comments, can't accept endorsements, doesn't this effectively hobble social media and make it simply marketing? The short answer, frankly, is yes. But, that doesn't mean it should be ignored. You wouldn't ignore more traditional marketing strategies like email campaigns, right? Why ignore the marketing benefits that even a hobbled social media strategy can bring?
- On December 16, FINRA is hosting a webinar entitled Compliance Considerations for Social Networking Sites. This will likely be a useful webinar to participate in for any financial firm wrestling with compliance issues relative to social media.
These were just some of the highlights from the discussions throughout the day. If you have any questions about how you can use social media or how your competitors are using it or would like to talk more specifically about any of the above topics, please don't hesitate to contact us.
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Written by Tim Ullrich
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Thursday, 22 October 2009 15:02 |
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.
Among the other firms we regularly track in e-Monitor, E*TRADE Financial offers comparable online global trading services though there are several key differences. E*TRADE Financial requires clients to open a separate global trading account but the service is available to all clients, not just active traders. E*TRADE Financial clients are also required to convert assets to local currency, prior to trading, whereas Fidelity clients can trade with U.S. Dollars (though fees apply).
Fidelity only allows eligible clients to view its global trading platform and related resources (e.g., research, quotes). E*TRADE Financial clients, however, can view select resources – namely foreign stock research – within the Global Trading section, even if they do not have a Global Trading Account.
A summary of commission for global trading is provided below:
| Global Trading |
Online Commission
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Rep-Assisted Commission
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(per trade, listed in local currency)
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Australia
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AUD $32
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AUD $70
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Canada
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CAN $19
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CAN $70
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Hong Kong
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HK $250
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HK $600
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Japan
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¥3,000
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¥8,000
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Norway
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Kr 160
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Kr 400
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United Kingdom
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£9
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£30
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Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal
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€19
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€70
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Written by Tim Ullrich
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Monday, 19 October 2009 09:50 |
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Last Friday, PlanAdviser.com posted a story about a consumer survey conducted in June 2009 by market research firm Mintel Comperemedia. It addressed the issue of financial education. The firm found that three-fourths of online survey respondents are trying to improve their financial knowledge in response to the current economic crisis. Thirty-eight percent say they are turning to financial advisers for help, or plan to do so soon. But what about people that don't have the assets to work with a financial advisor, or that prefer to manage their own finances? Where are they to turn for help? Probably the same place millions turn for the latest news and information everyday, the World Wide Web.
Corporate Insight recently published its first cross-industry analysis of the state of Web-based financial education, Consumer Financial Education Today: Best Practices. One of the reasons we tackled this subject was that we felt that consumers want and need better financial education to cope with today's challenging environment; the Mintel Comperemedia survey confirms that view.
We also felt it was only natural that financial services firms would strive to satisfy this consumer need for knowledge. After all, good educational content helps create smarter consumers, while at the same time giving firms an opportunity to promote suitable products and services to them. Educational content also offers financial institutions a way to earn back the trust they've lost in the recent crisis, demonstrating that they have their clients' best interests at heart.
In our report, we identify dozens of best practices across all segments of the industry, from banks to brokerages to mutual fund firms and beyond. Certain industry segments - like the self-directed brokerages - proved very innovative in terms of online education, offering several examples that could benefit any financial services firm. Other industry segments - like credit card issuers and annuity firms - haven't really risen to the challenge, unfortunately. The report discusses the leaders in all of the segments that Corporate Insight tracks, plus retirement plan websites, in an effort to help our clients improve their own educational offerings.
For those financial institutions that haven't invested in their educational content in the past few years, our research will help them understand what they're up against and hopefully inspire them to innovate and engage consumers through effective educational features. Clearly, consumers want to learn. Now it's time for more financial institutions to step up and teach them.
If you would like more information on our services, please click here. |
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Written by Tim Ullrich
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Wednesday, 14 October 2009 14:10 |
 TD Bank finally launched their revamped website after hinting and making announcements about an upcoming change for several weeks. The new website features better navigational menus and updated product information; more significantly, the firm now lets users apply for accounts online. Previously, the old TD Bank site provided a general list of the firm's product offerings, requiring prospective account holders to complete an application request form before they could apply for an account.
The new website uses a main four-tab navigational menu and an updated left-hand menu for the Banking section. The firm has also made viewing products and services available in specific regions easier through a new Select Your Region page. Although the revamped public site features new products and services, some existing sections were removed, including the My TD Bank page, which allowed customers to customize their public site homepage.
The firm made less extensive changes to the private site which remains largely the same with the old design and color scheme still being used. TD did however make some changes to the Accounts, Bill Pay and Service sections, including a new Pending Payments page and new data entry fields.
Overall, the new website offers a more efficient experience for users navigating the site and the ability to apply for accounts online helps bring the site up to par with its peers. The TD Bank site change was covered more extensively in our Bank Monitor Update; for more information about our subscription products please go here: Corporate Insight Monitor Services.
If you would like more information on our services, please click here. |
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Written by Tim Ullrich
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Wednesday, 14 October 2009 10:41 |
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 In February of 2007, TIAA-CREF introduced a beta version of their retirement-focused online community, MyRetirement.org, to a select group of clients. Recently the firm rolled the site out to its broader client base through an email invitation.
MyRetirement.org provides a unique outlet for the firm’s clients to discuss a number of topics, including investment and saving strategies, travel and leisure plans, even health and fitness tips. This broad range of financial- and lifestyle-focused content should appeal to the interests of the firm's unique customer base, i.e., those with backgrounds in the academic, research, medical and cultural fields.
To join the community, members must create a user profile by entering a screen name and password, uploading a picture and a brief statement about their personal retirement aspirations. Once completed, members are able to post ideas to any of the eight message boards, or comment on third-party financial commentary. Members can connect with other members via friend requests, similar to those found on popular social networking sites like Facebook.com and LinkedIn.com.
With nearly 10,000 active members and several hundred posts across a variety of topics, the new MyRetirement.org site seems to have actively engaged a sizable portion of the firm’s retirement-aged clients. This challenges the notion that such communities are not suited to older people, a subject we discussed in last year's report Social Media: Trends and Tactics in the Financial Services Industry. Inviting a portion of the firm's client base to experience the beta site before wider release was probably a smart move, allowing the firm to seed the site with content as well as gauge user interest and beta test the site's functionality. The fact that many of the firm's customers share the same professional interests also bodes well for the future success of the community.
While other annuity issuers have introduced retirement-focused sitelets, most notably the 2008 release of AXA Equitable’s MyRetirementShop.com, no annuity firm provides their clients with as strong a community as TIAA-CREF’s MyRetirement.org. It will be interesting to see how the community evolves now that the doors are being opened to a much larger membership.
If you are interested in reading more on Retirement please click here for an abstract to our latest Mutual Fund Monitor Report, In and Nearing Retirement. |
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Written by Tim Ullrich
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Monday, 12 October 2009 09:51 |
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 BlackRock added a 529 plan section to the Products tab. The new CollegeAdvantage 529 Plan section is divided into three education tabs, similar in design to the firm's Retirement Plan Solutions tab. The three tabs – Overview, Investment Options and Getting Started – consist of downloadable resources, forms and a new Morningstar College Savings tool. The new section emphasizes the need for parents to establish a 529 Plan and markets a number of different 529 Plan strategies offered by the firm.
This is a good addition by Blackrock and reduces the number of firms that we track in Mutual Fund Monitor Advisor without 529 plans to three: Evergreen, Federated, and iShares.
If you are interested in learning more on 529 Plan Kits, click here to read an abstract of a May 2008 Mutual Fund -Advisor Report. |
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