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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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Written by Tim Ullrich
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Monday, 05 October 2009 16:13 |
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.
Pacific Life, John Hancock and Charles Schwab were some of the first firms to post new advisor pages and resources concerning Roth conversions. Pacific Life added a new page to its advisor Resource Center that focuses exclusively on the conversion, while John Hancock released several new Roth IRA sales brochures. A new Roth IRA Conversion page was added to the Retirement Planning section of Charles Schwab’s public and private sites. While most of the new pages and materials relating to the conversion have been advisor-focused, Charles Schwab is providing both clients and public users with a list of FAQs and pros and cons of converting.
Changes to Overdraft Fees:
Tired of being hit with a fixed fee or charge as the result of overdrawing one’s account? Three firms have announced plans to waive certain overdraft charges. Bank of America will no longer charge overdraft fees if a customer account is overdrawn $10 or less, while Chase and Wells Fargo have waived the fee on overdrafts of $5 or less. All three firms publicly announced the new overdraft policies around the same time this month; however Bank of America was the only firm to state exactly when the changes will be implemented.
The BluePrint for Credit Card Management:
This month, Chase unveiled BluePrint, a new financial tool that helps card holders manage their accounts. The features of the tool enable customers to select specific purchases that they’d like to pay for, split large purchases into smaller ones, customize payment plans to pay off their balance and create a budget to track expenses. The tool is free for Freedom, Sapphire and Slate cardholders. Interestingly, the BluePrint program demands accountability from its users; if customers are unable to make three successive payments within a six-month period or make 50% of their payments for three consecutive months, the plan is automatically removed by the firm. While other firms offer budgeting tools, the BluePrint is unique in that it allows customers to consolidate credit card payments as well.
In Other News:
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Tracking Transaction Disputes – Discover added a new My Disputes overview page that allows customers to track the status of their transaction disputes online. Surprisingly, American Express is the only other card issuer we track to offer a similar tool.
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Text Me Something Good – MassMutual recently introduce Good Decision of the Day, a text message-based service that provides financial tips to users. The financial tips are updated daily, and are also displayed on the MassMutual public site.
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Written by Tim Ullrich
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Friday, 02 October 2009 11:20 |
 One of the forerunners to TD Bank in the northeast was Commerce Bank, a firm that built a reputation for excellent customer service and wide open, inviting branch locations. This week, that reputation for customer relations has been put to the test due to problems consolidating the legacy TD Banknorth and Commerce Bank backend computer systems. According to a FAQ section about the issues on TD Bank's website, transaction processing is currently backlogged at the bank, causing clients' balances to "temporarily be different" from what account holders might think they should be. In addition, the firm acknowledges that online banking access and connections to Quicken have been out intermittently this week as the bank has needed to do some emergency systems maintenance.
News sources are reporting that the problems for clients are far more widespread than TD Bank is acknowledging, affecting many clients in the northeast. Additionally, reports state that the system glitches are producing such discomforting results as people logging into the TD Bank private site and being greeted with a $0 balance or with the balance missing completely, as opposed to simply lagging behind where they should be. Understandably, the entire situation has rattled the bank's customers and a link to a story from Drudge Report is fanning the flames.
In response to the problems, TD Bank has tried to reassure clients that everything will be alright, both with updated online messaging and over-the-phone assurances from customer service agents. Beyond that, the firm has promised not to charge overdraft fees to anyone effected by the processing backlog and other consolidation glitches. While this is certainly a necessary step, it will come as no surprise if the clients who encounter some balance irregularities remain worried that their money on deposit at the bank might suddenly disappear.
TD Bank's message about the current online banking and balance issues, which is linked from a banner ad on the firm's public site homepage, states that "all hands are on deck" trying to fix the problems, and that employees throughout the firm are dedicated to helping clients with any issues they are currently having. The bank is not currently providing a timeline for when the back side account processing issues may be solved. |
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Written by Tim Ullrich
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Friday, 18 September 2009 10:36 |
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Ignites posted a video recently of Mark Jamison's comments at Schwab's recent Impact conference in which he discusses the five things advisors can do to ease investor angst.
His list included be empathetic, connect and be caring, validate, be optimistic, and be solution oriented. He is absolutely correct but I don't think the points are limited to advisors alone. In fact, it is these issues that firm communications should emphasize when talking to clients - be it online, over the phone or in person. Last year, when the market meltdown came into searing focus, we published a couple of white papers about how firms were communicating with clients during difficult times. We found that many firms missed the opportunity to connect with customers during this challenging time.
As we emerge from that dark period, investors are likely to be a bit shell-shocked. The more you can do to emphasize your concern for them and your strength, confidence and optimism in the bigger picture, the easier it will be to (re)gain their trust and guide them out of the woods. Offering good educational content can also repair trust by demonstrating your commitment to empowering clients.
Empathy; caring; validation; optimism; solutions. These are good guiding principals in marketing communications right now. What can you do to drive these points home in your communications? |
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Written by Tim Ullrich
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Tuesday, 15 September 2009 15:05 |
 In the Spring issue of our Consulting Insights publication, we discussed the recent rise of a number of new, innovative online aggregation services. There, and more recently in this blog post, we highlighted Mint.com as a leader in providing valuable, customer-friendly personal financial management (PFM) tools and advice. Apparently PFM software giant Intuit saw significant value in Mint as well, acquiring the firm for an impressive $170 million in a recently-confirmed deal.
Understandably, the move is considered a win for Mint. As a free service, the start-up had to deal with an unsteady income stream from sales of aggregate data and honorariums for its account recommendations. The $170 million valuation seems very favorable for a new company whose business model had not yet proven sustainable.
 Many Mint users have expressed their concerns about the deal across the blogosphere. So far, Mint's press release and blog post (which the firm emailed in an announcement to users) have done their best to assure users that the service will continue to be run as normal and (crucially) remain free. CEO Aaron Patzer will take over Intuit's personal finance group, which will oversee Mint as well as Quicken. Also staying on is "the Mint.com team," who promise to continue developing the platform's services as they have in the two years since its launch.
It also appears that Quicken Online, Intuit's own free online aggregation service, will remain in operation. While it rivaled Mint in terms of user base, its functionality was considerably less robust. Intuit believes that Quicken Online still fills a niche, "connect[ing] customers across desktop, online and mobile platforms," as per the Wall Street Journal article on the deal. However, it would have to expand on its limited capabilities connecting to desktop versions of Quicken to achieve that goal and offer useful features that Mint lacks.
As the spate of articles and blog posts reporting on this deal shows, account aggregation continues to generate a great deal of interest online. Usually, aggregation services make headlines for such innovations as tying social media into personal financial management. It remains to be seen how the Mint-Intuit partnership will impact users. However, the implications for the industry could be far-reaching.
Our original article identified a few other popular third-party aggregation services to watch, such as Wesabe, Geezeo and Cake Financial. Mint's sale to Intuit will likely put increased pressure on those firms to find a business model - or buyer - that will allow them to compete with the combined Mint-Intuit (and let their venture capitalists and/or founders cash out). While we're not sure that any financial institution would step up to the plate to buy one of these aggregators, a major financial portal like Yahoo! Finance or Microsoft Money might benefit from a partnership with one of these firms. |
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