In the News
Press Contact:
Intermarket Communications
Stephanie DiIorio, 212-754-5181
sdiiorio@intermarket.com
| How Brokers Responded to the Market Plunge | 5/11/2010 |  | |
Despite the relative few market alerts posted by brokerage houses, the response to the recent market plunge was an improvement from 2008. During the week that Lehman Brothers fell, most financial firms posted messages on their websites that included videos of the CEO or letters from upper management that discussed the financial health of their firms but offered few direct messages to clients, Corporate Insight noted.
| | The Young and the Mobile | 4/29/2010 |  | | On some New Jersey commuter trains over the past few months, the guy looking out the window could have been Abe Lincoln wearing a wireless earpiece.
Sun National Bank says the unusual image succeeded in getting attention. It wrapped trains and buses in advertising as part of a major campaign to tout mobile banking, which it began offering in February.
“The message is, your money is moving wherever you go,” says Ed Malandro, the executive vice president of consumer banking for the $3.6 billion-asset Sun in Vineland. “The presidents are symbolic of money, that’s why we used them.”
| | Which credit cards offer the best benefits? | 4/29/2010 |  | | Do you know if your credit card offers an extended warranty? How about trip cancellation insurance?
Built-in cardholder perks vary from issuer to issuer, and an explanation of benefits to customers also varies in visibility, new research from Corporate Insight shows.
| | Annuity Issuers Slowly Enter The Digital Age | 4/14/2010 |  | |
Recent innovations in the online account opening process and document delivery mark a positive step forward for the annuity industry.
| | Dreyfus, Putnam Score A's from Corporate Insight | 4/14/2010 |  | | Dreyfus Corporation and Putnam Investments garnered A's from Corporate Insight, which took a look at fund firms' efforts in educating investors on the Roth IRA Conversion law.
The change allows investors to roll assets into a Roth IRA regardless of age, marital status or age bracket.
| | Fund Firms Slow To Address IRA Conversion Opportunity | 4/14/2010 |  | |
Only two-thirds of mutual fund firms have moved to educate investors about new regulations that allow for the conversion of traditional individual and workplace retirement accounts into Roth IRAs regardless of income or marital status, according to a new study by Corporate Insight. The provision to the Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act went into effect this year, creating “an enormous opportunity for mutual fund firms to educate clients about the benefits of conversion, while potentially increasing the firms’ Roth IRA sales,” the New York research firm said. Estimates on the amount of assets eligible for conversion to Roth IRAs range from $1.5-2 trillion.
| | Fidelity Beefs Up Website Log-In Procedures | 4/14/2010 |  | | In a move that will boost customer identity protection, Fidelity has made changes to its website’s new user registration.
Boston-based Fidelity, the largest privately held investment manager, is requiring new users to supply the last four digits of their Social Security numbers, their first and last names and their dates of birth for verification. Existing users will not experience a change in log-in procedures.
| | Newest Trading Play: Screen Savings | 4/14/2010 |  | |
Our annual survey of online brokerages finds an impressive array of sophisticated offerings and lower costs. A key feature: social networking.
| | The Future Of Online Customer Feedback Has Arrived | 4/14/2010 | | |
Financial services firms have always coveted feedback and opinions about their websites and online services. This information offers an invaluable blueprint for improving the user-experience for three key audiences—prospective investors, clients and financial professionals. It also sheds light on the practices of competitors.
| | @Investors: Mutual Fund Providers Add Twitter to Arsenal | 3/9/2010 |  | |
American Century recently provided its mutual fund investors with the following advice: "Keep your focus on the spot of impact. Try not to pick your head up until you have reached the midthigh level on the follow-through. Keep going with your hands until they are at shoulder level."
| | Firms Back Variable Annuity Product Launches With Aggressive Online Marketing Campaigns | 2/24/2010 | | |
No annuity product was hit harder during the financial crisis than variable annuities. Many variable annuity contracts saw significant drops in value, in many cases 30% or more, due to the products' heavy exposure to the financial markets. For an investment that supposedly offers a guaranteed retirement income stream, variable annuities had been exposed as flawed and ultimately risky investment vehicles.
| | Issuers Take Different Paths To Introduce New Card Rules | 2/22/2010 |  | |
Several credit card issuers this month are taking more “positive, promotional” approaches to introducing new policies and billing-statement changes mandated by a federal law that goes into effect today, according to new research by Corporate Insight, a New York-based market-research firm.
| | A New Day Dawns for Credit Card Lending | 2/22/2010 |  | |
Today, after nine months of intense and sometimes-frantic preparation, credit card issuers must be in compliance with most provisions of a law that fundamentally changed some industry practices.
| | Firm Rates Best Web Features for Advisers | 2/9/2010 |  | |
There are many rankings out there comparing which fund managers have the best Web site for advisers, and Corporate Insight’s approach is to base its analysis on different areas of Web sites, such as who has the best practice management information.
| | Financial Firms Turn to Social Media to Attract New Gen X, Y Clients | 2/5/2010 |  | |
"Brokerages and banks will face the critical challenge in the next few decades of trying to retain billions of dollars in assets that will pass from longstanding clients to their Gen X and Gen Y children. In the hope of attracting these new investors and providing new communication services to their existing clients, a number of financial firms are actively tapping social media, according to Corporate Insight."
| | Looking For A Leg Up? Join The Online Club | 2/5/2010 |  | |
IBD article exploring the role social media and Web 2.0 play in helping investors make trading and general financial planning decisions.
| | Putting Your Money Where Your Mouse Is | 2/5/2010 |  | |
"Even some traditional financial institutions are going beyond online banking and experimenting with new ways to reach customers using social-media features, such as blogs, communities and wikis, which are Web pages that allow people to collaborate online. About 15% of nearly 70 financial institutions surveyed have added some of these features to their sites in 2008. A number of the sites have a dedicated section that allows members to exchange information through forums or blogs, according to a recent report by Corporate Insight Inc., a New York market-research firm."
| | Banks Test Social Media Waters | 9/25/2009 |  | | Banks and other financial firms are joining the cool kids online with a series of social-media outreach efforts aimed at educating consumers, according to a new report by Corporate Insight, a consulting firm in New York.
The report, entitled Consumer Financial Education Today: Best Practices, says that self-directed brokerage firms led the way with online forums, blogs, private messaging and user profiles. But now, Wells Fargo in particular has embraced blogging, created three separate blogs, one on its merger with Wachovia, one for college-age students and their parents and one explaining the bank’s history.
Given the number of mergers in the past year, only Wells Fargo has launched a blog to specifically to address its merger,” says James McGovern, vice president of consulting services at Corporate Insight. “It seems like a smart move to us—it’s an opportunity for the bank to put out its own message and develop some goodwill. I’m surprised Bank of America isn’t doing this.”
But, while it hasn’t gone the blog route, Bank of America has launched a social media community where customers can log onto educational forums to review lessons in personal financial management.
Meanwhile, Vanguard is one of the few mutual fund companies to experiment with Facebook as a way to educate readers about personal finance. The firm now has over 3,300 Facebook fans. Vanguard also offers a corporate blog focusing on investing, retirement and other personal finance issues.
Do social media strategies add anything tangible to the bottom line? “It’s still too early to tell,” McGovern says. “But it is undeniable that social media is changing the way companies and their customers interact with each other. All financial services firms need to consider what impact social media could have on their business going forward. We have yet to reach the full potential of social media, that’s for certain.”
| | Social Media Enhancing Investor Education | 8/11/2009 |  | | By Donna Mitchell
August 11, 2009
Financial services firms, in an effort to spruce up their image with consumers, are giving consumers platforms to communicate with each other and offering Web-based interactive tools, according to a study, “Consumer Financial Education Today: Best Practices,” released today by Corporate Insight.
Several financial services companies have begun using social media, such as blogs and third-party Websites like Twitter and Facebook, to communicate with clients, as well as allow investors to engage with each other. Officials at Corporate Insight say the potential for collaborative learning via social media is high and will be an area to watch in the coming years.
Good consumer education helps advisors, too, because it improves their understanding of the products they recommend to their clients and helps them to develop a more profitable business, according to the report. Vanguard's blog, for instance, offers investors timely information in an environment with compliance oversight.
“With industry skepticism at an all-time high, it’s more important than ever for firms to prove that they’re customer advocates,” said James McGovern, vice president of consulting services for Corporate Insight, a New York-based research firm. “Offering their clients objective, informative and impactful educational content is one way to do this.”
But current digital communications have not supplanted more traditional means of educating consumers. Many companies choose to use third-party vendors to supplement their existing educational content, allowing customers access to a comprehensive library of educational materials. Many retail brokerage firms, for instance, use bond- and option-related education materials from the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) and the Options Industry Council.
| | Fidelity, JPMorgan recognized for offering strong educational services to investors, advisers | 8/11/2009 |  | | Firms offer such resources to prove ‘they’re customer advocates,’ study finds
By David Hoffman
August 11, 2009
Fidelity Investments is leading the way when it comes to providing investors and advisers with good educational resources, according to a report today from Corporate Insight Inc., a New York-based financial services consulting firm.
Across seven financial services industry segments studied, Boston-based Fidelity emerged as a leader in five areas: annuity issuers, brokerage firms, mutual fund companies (retail), mutual fund companies (adviser) and retirement plan providers.
Other segments studied were banks and credit card issuers.
Another firm singled out for praise was JPMorgan Chase & Co. of New York “for doing more to educate struggling homeowners than most other financial institutions, and for offering strong credit-related education,” according to the report.
But while Fidelity and JPMorgan are identified as leaders, they aren’t the only firms to have come to the conclusion that education is important.
The report, “Consumer Financial Education Today: Best Practices,” indicates that over the past eight months, 33% of the self-directed-brokerage firms that Corporate Insight tracks have made major improvements to their online education, incorporating interactive media such as webinars into their offerings.
“Top financial institutions understand that good educational resources can help consumers during our current economic crisis” James McGovern, vice president of consulting services at Corporate Insight, said in a statement. “With industry skepticism at an all-time high, it is more important than ever for firms to prove that they’re customer advocates. Offering their clients objective, informative and impactful educational content is one way to do this.”
One finding of the report was that a number of companies choose to use third-party vendors to supplement their existing educational content,.
Corporate Insight also found that several financial services companies have begun using social media —such as company blogs and third-party sites such as Twitter and Facebook — to engage clients and provide a platform for investors to communicate with each other and the firms directly.
| | New Retirement Planning Series Launches | 6/8/2009 |  | | Corporate Insight Evaluates the Retirement Offerings of Top
Financial Services Firms
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Corporate Insight, the leader in competitive intelligence in the
financial service industry, announced the release of a new series of
research reports which will focus on retirement-related offerings in the
annuities, credit cards, mutual fund, banking and brokerage sectors. The
series launches with an initial, first-of-its-kind report that examines
the top dedicated Retirement Centers offered by brokerages. Corporate
Insight carefully evaluates the breadth and accessibility of information
that fourteen leading brokerages are providing to customers.
“Our firm's new agenda is a direct response to the growing focus on the
retirement needs of investors,” says Executive Vice President Michael
Ellison. “I believe that Corporate Insight’s first-hand view of the
customer experience will help lead to improvements, as well as set
standards in the retail financial services industry’s retirement sector.”
Given the current state of the economy, investors are taking a more
active approach in managing their retirement accounts – something the
financial services industry is taking into account. Corporate Insight
aims to provide transparent, detailed information on each company’s
offerings to help investors meet their new goals and provide firms with
a benchmark that will determine how well they are doing in their
respective space.
In the first report, Corporate Insight has found that smart online
brokerages are tailoring their Retirement Centers to offer a number of
educational resources and online tools as a one-stop shop for
retirement-related information.
-
Three firms – E*Trade Financial, Fidelity and TD
Ameritrade – earned top honors from Corporate Insight for
providing an overall complete retirement center offering.
-
Half of the sites Corporate Insight analyzed were equipped with
planning tools, calculators and retirement-related articles that could
be understood by a novice investor, but still provided information for
sophisticated investors.
-
Two-thirds of firms organized retirement resources by stage
(i.e. 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s+), allowing investors to find links
to tips, articles, tools and checklists specific to their age range.
-
Investors benefit when centers offer not only resources and tools, but
recommendations for the products best suited to satisfy their
retirement needs.
-
Charles Schwab stood out for its comprehensive public and
private site offerings. Its public site allows prospective clients to
use planning tools and educational resources with the option to enroll
in the firm’s services prominently available.
The next report in the Retirement-related series will focus on
Retirement Income Planning within the mutual fund space. This topic will
be of interest to those nearing retirement age, as the need to take
retirement planning to another level – income planning – takes priority.
Corporate Insight has researched seventeen top mutual fund firms to
evaluate their current offerings.
Further information about Corporate Insight is available at http://www.corporateinsight.com
Editor’s Note:
For a complete version of the Retirement Center report or to
arrange an interview with Corporate Insight, please contact Stephanie
DiIorio or Loren Macchiaroli at Intermarket Communications.
About Corporate Insight
Corporate Insight currently provides a comprehensive selection of
syndicated research to 90% of the top financial service companies within
the Fortune 500, representing 70% of the brokerage industry and 60% of
US banking assets. Our expert analysts compile highly detailed research
audits that deliver a unique, firsthand understanding of financial
service product offerings. All of our research is compiled through
personal interaction with each website. Further information from
Corporate Insight is available at http://www.corporateinsight.com.
| | Five Fund Firms Rank High In Informing Advisors | 5/21/2009 |  | | Five Fund Firms Rank High In Informing Advisors
Five out of 17 mutual fund firms studied by Corporate Insight were judged to provide a comprehensive set of Web-based tools to keep advisors informed of market changes.
At the same time, most firms could better utilize the tools available to provide instant communications to advisors, the study says.
American Funds, AllianceBernstein, MFS, DWS Investments and Invesco Aim came out on top for providing comprehensive commentary outlets for their clients, says Corporate Insight, a market research and consulting firm based in New York City.
Some funds use RSS feeds, which are automatic notifications to the advisor of new content on a Web blog, while others utilize podcasts, which can be replayed at any time on any Internet device.
Others offer direct e-mail delivery of new pieces from the Web site and still others provide automatic e-mail notifications that tell advisors to go to the Web site for new commentary.
New entries can cover a range of topics, such as MFS’s fund analysis and market commentary by the fund’s chief investment strategist, James Swanson, or American Funds Perspective by Jim Rothenberg, chairman of the investment advisor to American Funds, on what to expect in 2009.
Corporate Insight recommends mutual fund firms use audio, video and PDF formats for commentary, use RSS feeds or e-mail alerts when new commentary is posted, provide access to archived commentaries and provide different analysis by region and financial sector.
“During times of extreme market turbulence, it is even more essential for mutual fund advisors to understand the correlation of topical, current events to their mutual funds’ performance,” says Corporate Insight. Using Internet technology on the fund website including “audio, video and written commentaries serves to establish a firm’s expertise in the mutual fund field and can strengthen an advisor’s loyalty to the firm.”
| | Mobile Trading Shifts to a Higher Gear | 5/19/2009 | | | MONDAY, MAY 18, 2009
ELECTRONIC INVESTOR
Mobile Trading Shifts to a Higher Gear
By THERESA W. CAREY
Trading via your iPhone.
APPLE LAST YEAR RELEASED A SOFTWARE-DEVELOPMENT kit for the iPhone and iPod Touch, allowing programmers working outside the Apple umbrella to write applications for these hugely popular devices. We frankly were surprised that brokers didn't leap at the offer with a lot of interesting new ideas.
When we surveyed participants for our 14th annual ranking of online brokers ("Blue Chips," March 16), 15 of the 25 polled said that they supported trading on the iPhone. While that's a significant number, most of the pack allowed trading via the device's built-in Safari Web browser. That meant a customer would have to log in to the broker's Web-based application, and access the site's features via a tiny interface. Not a great experience. The lone exception was TD Ameritrade, which launched its iPhone trading application last fall.
That may be about to change. James McGovern, vice president of consulting services at Corporate Insight, believes that mobile-trading applications are on the verge of taking off. "It's a way for these firms to appeal to younger people, a different segment that they don't necessarily have inroads to right now, plus it's a way to keep active traders happy," he says.
McGovern sees the increased focus on mobile trading as another way for self-directed brokerages to distinguish themselves with technology; firms ignoring the mobile-trading trend are likely making a mistake. "We think the industry effort will pay off, and that we'll see better user adoption rates, better applications, and a better experience," he observes.
Earlier this month, E*Trade launched its iPhone application, Mobile Pro, which already has a version available for the BlackBerry (July 2008). It's got a list of very useful features for the road warrior, including the ability to place conditional stock and option orders, plus access to E*Trade's QuickTransfer capability. QuickTransfer provides real-time cash movements between E*Trade accounts, as well as links to a customer's non-E*Trade bank accounts.
When you fire up Mobile Pro, your trading dashboard is displayed. This screen shows a graph of your chosen index (Dow, Nasdaq or Standard & Poor's 500); scrolling down, you can read the latest news headlines. At the top are links to account summaries and your portfolio holdings, which you can call up with a tap of your finger. You can also access watch lists, and get free streaming real-time quotes.
The usual trading fees apply, but there are no additional charges for using Mobile Pro.
If you're using a software-based brokerage, such as TradeStation, how can you access all of those features from a distance? Janette Perez of TradeStation suggests an application called LogMeIn Pro (www.logmein.com), which lets you access your desktop computer from a remote device, including a smartphone. I was given a demo during the preparation of our online-broker story, and found LogMeIn to provide reasonable access to a software-based trading application.
It will run you $69.95 per year to have access to one personal computer from afar, but you can log into it from your phone's Web browser; pricing depends on the number of computers you want to access, not the number of devices you'll use to tap into your PC at home remotely. Note: You should be sitting at the computer you want to access remotely when you sign up for the service. (There is a stripped-down version of LogMeIn called LogMeIn Free, which, appropriately enough, costs nothing to use.)
LogMeIn might also be an option for iPhone-owning foreign-exchange traders.
FX Solutions (http://www.fxsolutions.com/) has a mobile application, GTS Mobile, which runs on 1,200 devices -- but not the iPhone. Yet. Bill Lawless, vice president, says the mobile application is designed to work with the limited amount of real estate available on a hand-held device while allowing the customer to work within the data limits imposed by the cellular carrier.
There is an iPhone application published for forex traders called iTradeMobile (http://www.itrademobile.com/). It costs $7.95 per month, and works for customers of Forex Capital Markets (www.fxcm.com).
WIZARD OR FINDER? In our May 4 column ("New Tools for Bond-Shopping"), we reviewed a new fixed-income feature that TradeKing was calling Bond Wizard. As it turns out, TradeKing had licensed a program from the bond supplier, Knight BondPoint, which was already in use by TD Ameritrade. After a flurry of discussions among lawyers, TradeKing renamed its bond tool Bond Finder, and made some modifications to the wording of the products queries to clients.
THERE'S A FREE CHARTING APP for the bargain-hunter out there who wants free streaming quotes and charts. Check out FreeStockCharts (www.freestockcharts.com). the site's ad-supported, but you can ignore the column of ads on the right side of the screen by moving your browser to the right so they're not visible. You'll get access to data provided by the BATS Exchange, which is the No. 3 exchange (behind NYSE and Nasdaq) for U.S. markets.
Charts can be quickly modified, but you have to sign up for an account for the privilege. (I found an increase in trading-related spam upon signing up.) The volumes displayed on the charts are estimates, based on BATS' share of the total market, but you can change that to show only BATS-traded volume. The interface is pretty slick, however -- and, as I mentioned, it's free.
TWEETERS WHO OFFER KNOWLEDGEABLE interpretations of breaking financial news, such as market moves, include the Seeking Alpha bloggers. You can follow them at twitter.com/MarketCurrents. Most of their tweets are one-liners -- but many link to longer discussions in their own blogs, or to articles published elsewhere.
The only downside to following MarketCurrents is that each link opens a new tab in your browser, and it can take two or three clicks to get to an article.
Twitterati: Good tweeple to follow for market news and quick updates include our own Eric Savitz, who posts Tech Trader Daily blurbs throughout the day. Find him at twitter.com/savitz.
| | Ranking the Full-Service Brokers | 5/19/2009 |  | | Ranking the Full-Service Brokers
EDITOR'S NOTE: This article is part of SmartMoney's annual broker survey special report. For more coverage, see "The SmartMoney 2009 Broker Survey1," "Give Your Broker This 5-Part Test2," and "Should You Dump Your Broker3."
Talk about a tough year. Whether they’re getting help from the government, linking up with longtime rivals or fighting over account executives, full-service brokerage firms are battling for survival. But what they may need most is loyal clients, and to entice customers, they’re paying special attention to the basics, from spiffed-up account statements and flashy Web sites to decent stock picking in a lousy market.
For our ranking of full-service brokerage firms, we supplemented SmartMoney research with research from outside experts: Zack’s Investment Research for stock picking, J.D. Power for customer service and account statements, Forrester Research for trust, Dalbar for account statements and Corporate Insight for Web sites. The results:
7. Morgan Stanley
www.morganstanley.com4
Number of brokers: 8,400
Number of branches: 500
High marks: Web site
Low marks: Trust
Is bigger better? After the planned linkup with Citigroup’s Smith Barney, the combined joint venture will have more brokers than any competitor, even Merrill Lynch. But combining brokerage teams comes as Morgan Stanley confronts other big challenges. The firm posted its second straight quarterly loss in the first quarter and slashed its dividend to preserve cash. What’s more, Morgan Stanley ranks near the bottom in most categories in our survey. Clients are “disappointed that their wealth is declining,” says head of national sales Andy Saperstein, adding that the company is doing its best to help clients navigate the turmoil. The Web site earned better marks, helped by a top-notch design.
6. Merrill Lynch
www.ml.com5
Number of brokers: 15,700
Number of branches: 790
High marks: Statements
Low marks: Trust
Analysts are still pondering the fate of Merrill Lynch and its “thundering herd” of brokers, following the firm’s rescue by Bank of America and the departure of top Merrill execs. The turmoil certainly didn’t help the firm’s overall ranking in this year’s survey; it fell three notches, from third place last year. Only 34 percent of Merrill’s clients surveyed by Forrester Research think the firm did what was best for them, down from 47 percent in the previous survey. A Merrill spokesperson says the company’s own surveys show that clients are “very happy” with their brokers. The firm earns kudos from the researchers at Dalbar for account statements, including an “easy-to-understand” chart showing how clients’ portfolios are faring.
5. Wachovia
www.wachovia.com6
Number of brokers: 14,400
Number of branches: 1,460
High marks: Stock picking
Low marks: Web site
Clients of this firm might be developing a case of whiplash. Wachovia had only just begun merging its back offices with recently acquired A.G. Edwards when Wells Fargo snapped up Wachovia late last year. All those changes make some investors nervous, but Jim Hays, president of Wachovia’s retail brokerage unit, says brokers like the new link-up with the San Francisco–based Wells. Wachovia (recently renamed Wells Fargo Advisors) improved in two categories this year: statements, which Wachovia revamped last year, and stock picking. Its Web site, on the other hand, ranked the lowest in the group, with a clunky search tool and dowdy layout. A redesign is in the works.
4. Smith Barney
www.smithbarney.com7
Number of brokers: 13,000
Number of branches: 800
High marks: Web site
Low marks: Customer satisfaction
This Citigroup unit—soon to be Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, after its combination with Morgan Stanley—climbs in our rankings from last place last year. The firm earns high marks for trust, according to Forrester Research. James Tracy, Smith Barney’s director of business development, says that amid the financial crisis, the firm boosted its contact with clients by adding educational seminars, research papers on its Web site and more-frequent phone calls from brokers. As for the merger, the firm says it doesn’t plan to shed brokers, despite losing billions of dollars more in client assets in the fourth quarter than it brought in. Departing investors are “looking for second opinions,” says Tracy.
3. UBS
www.ubs.com8
Number of brokers: 13,900
Number of branches: 720
High marks: Customer satisfaction
Low marks: Web site
What else can go wrong? The brokerage firm’s parent bank has been hit by the largest annual loss ever for a Swiss company, thousands of layoffs, and a U.S. government probe into how it helped wealthy clients cheat on taxes. UBS is suffering from “concerns about financial strength,” says William Blair analyst Mark Lane. Still, the brokerage firm got a boost in our survey from high scores in customer satisfaction and account statements. The firm’s Web site didn’t fare as well. Research firm Corporate Insight found its pages hard to navigate and the search tool inefficient. A UBS spokesperson says clients have found the site easy to use and that more improvements are on the way.
2. Edward Jones
www.edwardjones.com9
Number of brokers: 12,100
Number of branches: 10,880
High marks: Stock picking
Low marks: Web site
Call it a bear-market bounce. Edward Jones hired more than 900 new brokers last year, making it one of many regional brokers capitalizing on the misfortunes of Wall Street giants like Merrill Lynch. The St. Louis–based firm, with a reputation for at-your-doorstep service, also managed to lead the pack in stock picking. Its picks were down, but not nearly as much as the competition’s. “We don’t pick exciting names,” says James Weddle, managing partner. “We’re just looking for solid companies that increase their dividends.” On the down side, Corporate Insight found the firm’s Web site hard to navigate. Edward Jones says its goal is to educate site visitors in clear language and connect them with a financial adviser.
1. Raymond James
www.raymondjames.com10
Number of brokers: 5,000
Number of branches: 2,280
High marks: Customer satisfaction
Low marks: Stock picking
A repeat winner from last year, St. Petersburg, Fla.-based Raymond James knocks out the competition in two categories: customer satisfaction and brokerage statements. The 47-year-old Raymond James, which took on more than 300 new brokers last year, says it’s also scooping up new customers from full-service outfits with riskier balance sheets and uncertain futures. “There are just fewer firms to compete with,” says Chet Helck, the firm’s chief operating officer. One weak spot: Stock picking ranked third-to-last. “I’d attribute that to a tough market,” says Helck.
1http://www.smartmoney.com/Investing/Stocks/SmartMoney-2009-Broker-Survey
2http://www.smartmoney.com/Investing/Stocks/Give-Your-Broker-This-5-Part-Test/
3http://www.smartmoney.com/investing/stocks/Should-You-Dump-Your-Broker/
4http://www.morganstanley.com
5http://www.ml.com
6http://www.wachovia.com
7http://www.smithbarney.com
8http://www.ubs.com
9http://www.edwardjones.com
10http://www.raymondjames.com
URL for this article:
http://www.smartmoney.com/investing/stocks/Ranking-the-Full-Service-Brokers/
| | Fund Firm Commentary for Advisers Varies | 5/14/2009 | | | Fund Firm Commentary for Advisers Varies
Ellie Behling – 05/14/2009
Many mutual fund firms provide advisers with commentary, but not all of them have jumped on board with new media endeavors.
Research firm Corporate Insight looked at 17 mutual fund firms and found 94% of them offered some sort of commentary for advisers. The report found that 31% provide fund-specific commentary. Some offer multimedia commentary: 31% provide video commentary; 25% offer audio; and 13% offer podcasts.
More than half of the firms highlight new commentary pieces regularly on their homepage, but only five firms notify advisers of new content using syndicated services such as RSS feeds and podcasts. Some firms use e-mails notifications (13%) or delivery (19%).
Four of the firms in the report—DWS Investments, MFS, Oppenheimer, and Van Kampen—allow users to launch videos directly on the homepage. Most of these are smaller videos, but Van Kampen allows the user to enlarge the player.
Corporate Insight gave these five firms a top grade for "comprehensive commentary outlets:” American Funds, AllianceBernstein, MFS, DWS Investments, and Invesco Aim. Those firms prominently highlight content on their homepage and use a variety of formats. DWS and MFS use video or audio formats.
The study noted that most firms offer a centralized outlet to organize commentary-related materials, but the quality varies. Less than half (38%) of firms in the report provide an archive of materials, which also vary in quality. AllianceBernstein has an archive dating back three years, but offers no way to sort through the materials; Fidelity offers and expandable archive, but there aren’t many articles in it, according to the report.
Corporate Insight recommends these attributes in commentary for advisers:
- offers and promotes a central commentary outlet;
- offers a full range of formats, from audio and video to PDFs;
- provides an organized archive;
- keeps advisers updated with RSS feeds and e-mails;
- offers diverse commentary subjects about different regions and sectors.
During times of extreme market turbulence, it is even more essential for mutual fund advisers to understand the correlation of topical, current events to their mutual funds’ performance, Corporate Insight said. Commentaries in a variety of formats strengthen an adviser’s loyalty to a mutual fund firm.
| | Banks try social networking, jump on Twitter wagon | 5/12/2009 |  | | Banks try social networking, jump on Twitter wagon
By Kathy Chu and Kim Thai, USA TODAY
Social networking is becoming an increasingly popular way for banks to reach consumers amid the economic downturn.
Wells Fargo (WFC) and Bank of America (BAC) have begun to "tweet" — post messages of 140 characters or less on Twitter.com — with customers about everything from bank fees to product features. Discover Financial (DFS), American Express (AXP) and Citigroup (C) have launched Facebook or MySpace pages. Some banks even put marketing videos on YouTube.
"Social media is a whole new world, and you cannot afford to not be a part of it," says Pamela Blase, a spokeswoman for UMB Financial of Kansas City, Mo., which tweets about everything from the bank's financial stability to the industry's prospects.
Banks say they're establishing presences on social-networking sites to tap into a growing demographic and to control the conversation about their brands. Yet the economic turmoil, some say, makes it even more important to reach out to customers any way they can.
"There's a lot of worry out there," says Ed Terpening, vice president of social media at Wells Fargo, one of the first banks with a group of employees dedicated to social networking. "That means that we have to stay close to our customers."
The appeal of social networking, according to Steve Furman, Discover's director of e-commerce, is that it provides "pure, instant" communication with customers.
In general, banks and card issuers have been slower to embrace social networking than other industries have. But social networking has become popular enough that, for many institutions, it's not a question of if but when to establish a presence on these sites, says James McGovern of Corporate Insight, a financial-services research firm.
Yet as a growing number of banks become proficient in the social-networking world, the norms of customer service are being upended. Increasingly, today's online interactions between banks and consumers are peppered with shorthand, typos and even slang.
"It sounds like you need 2 talk 2 someone abt your specific situation," read a recent Twitter post from a Wells Fargo rep.
Adding to banks' challenges, social-networking sites are becoming another venue for consumers to complain — and complain is exactly what they're doing as credit card rates and fees rise even as the economy struggles and unemployment rises.
Jesse Hattabaugh, a software engineer from San Francisco, recently posted this message to banks on Twitter: "Stop making your living off my late fees! You fine me more than you loan me!"
| | Best Online Retirement Tools: An industry insider shares its views | 4/16/2009 | | | Retirement Planning
Best Online Retirement Tools
Stephane Fitch, 04.16.09, 1:20 PM ET
The five best Web sites to help you plan your retirement belong to Charles Schwab, E*Trade Financial, Fidelity, TD Ameritrade and Vanguard.
That's according to a report released recently from an outfit called Corporate Insight. You may not be familiar with this blandly named consultancy. But the New York-based firm is something of an industry insider. And its opinion, therefore, may be well worth listening to.
Brokerages frequently turn to Corporate Insight when retooling Web sites. They hire the firm to evaluate market demand for new online features and to tell them more about their competitors' offerings.
"We've been looking at these Web sites every day for years," says David Rosenberg, a senior researcher at Corporate Insight. "We know what works."
Rosenberg and his team of researchers occasionally let their opinions fly, without being asked, about what the industry is doing right and wrong. They also publish a monthly report that's circulated among clients and some industry trade publications. The subjects are often rather esoteric. The reports are meant for brokerage industry insiders, not investors trying to sort out who has the best Web sites.
But on March 27 Corporate Insight released a report called "Retirement Centers: Helping Investors Help Themselves." "I think more so than usual, this is one that investors could benefit from," says Rosenberg.
What's a retirement center, anyway? It's not the part of a broker's Web site you point your browser to if you just want to snatch up 50 shares of Coca-Cola. The retirement center is where you go to plan your long-term retirement goals, calculate how much you'll need to save to fund your lifestyle after you leave your job, whether you should spend your extra money or give it to charities or grandchildren, whether you should be in a traditional IRA or a Roth IRA and so on.
Rosenberg and his team figure online investors' have pretty much the same needs as those who walk in the door of a brokerage office. A broker's online retirement center ought to be easy to find and distinguish between various types of visitors. It should ask what stage of retirement planning you're in. Obviously, the interests of a 30-year-old who's just beginning to put money into a 401(k) account are a lot different than those of a 68-year-old retiree with questions about how and when to take it out.
That's just the basics. Rosenberg says good online retirement centers also have sophisticated calculators to figure out how much dough you'll need to save now to fund your retirement. There should be some solid, objective advice on topics ranging from investment risk-tolerance to taxes and fees. And finally, investors should be able to easily compare investment products.
Rosenberg evaluated 20 brokerages in total. Charles Schwab gets kudos for being the best site for window-shoppers. Some brokerages won't give you access to their best planning tools and advice until you agree to open an account. Not Chuck. You can spend hours rooting around his Web site anonymously. And there's advice not only about retirement, but also related stuff like saving for college, estate planning and charitable giving. A few tools are available only to clients, but if you're the type who likes a lot of freebies, Schwab.com may be a fine place to start.
E*Trade Financial offers an especially high number of calculators and
planning tools--13 in total, vs. five at Schwab. Several of E*Trade's tools are managed by Gainskeeper. But there's enough original content here to make this discount broker's site well worth a visit.
Fidelity offered almost as many tools, including some sophisticated retirement calculators that allow you to aggregate information from investment accounts at other banks and brokerages. Rosenberg says this kind of tool, which he calls a "planner," is essential for serious do-it-yourself investors.
Vanguard scored well for its aggregation tool as well. The company's educational section was especially well done, with step-by-step lessons on several topics. The "Plain Talk" section has articles tailored to varying stages in life.
TD Ameritrade finished in the top five even though its center's basic retirement-planning information, and most of its tools, are provided by third parties. The company's "WealthRuler" tool is available to all users.
Here's the list of brokerages whose online retirement centers didn't make the top five: Ameriprise Financial, Banc of America, Edward Jones, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, RBC, Scottrade, Sharebuilder, Smith Barney, UBS, Wachovia Securities, Wells Fargo and Zecco.
| | Bank of America Dominates Bank Monitor Awards | 2/19/2009 |  | | Bank of America Dominates Bank Monitor Awards
Corporate Insight’s annual Bank Monitor Awards and report show a movement towards upgrading online banking sites, rather than all-out innovation.
By Maria Bruno-Britz
February 19, 2009
Bank of America has earned the top spot in New York-based Corporate Insight's2008 Bank Monitor Awards. BS&T was given an exclusive look at the seventh annual report for online banking excellence where the online banking operations of 15 Bank Monitor banks are examined and rated based on several criteria.
As expected, the financial crisis played a large role in this year's rankings as banks scrambled to deal with reorganization, and the messaging and capabilities changes that go along with that, according to the firm. As a result, says Doug Miller, a senior analyst with the company, there was a noticeable lack of innovation on these sites this past year.
"The main issue related to any sort of banking slowdown, including the woes of 2008, is a lack of new online banking initiatives," Miller told BS&T. "It's highly unlikely that any downturn in the banking sector short of a bankruptcy or merger would affect existing major online banking functions, as firms are unlikely to remove a pre-existing feature, such as online bill payment, even if their online banking development budget was cut to zero dollars. Instead, what was most likely lost over the past year was innovation and tool refinement within the online banking space."
Therefore, rather than introducing anything revolutionary to the online channel in 2008, Miller says banks dedicated most of their efforts to upgrading their sites and playing catch-up with one another. Some introduced new features, but many times, these were usually already being offered by the competition, such as mobile banking.
One area that did catch the attention of Corporate Insight was in funds transfers as more banks expanded the capabilities of the ACH. "Traditionally, banks have allowed clients to move money between linked depository accounts, but not to many other places," Miller explains. "[Last year] not only saw more firms introduce ACH transfers to outside banks and transfer-like payments to internal credit accounts, but also saw banks introduce new and innovative transfer options."
Two initiatives in particular that he mentions are the re-introduction of New York-based Citibank's Global Transfer service, which allows account holders to transfer money to other Citi clients fee-free (a capability currently offered by four firms), and the addition of the QuickPay Service by New York-based Chase, a feature that allows both clients and non-clients to make peer-to-peer payments and transfers, provided they have an e-mail address.
"These types of expansions and innovations in online transfers and payments did the most to improve the power and attractiveness of online banking in 2008," Miller states.
Other banks are starting to broaden their view of what constitutes an online banking service. Wells Fargo (San Francisco), for example, introduced its vSafe online electronic document repository in 2008. "This tool was one of the few truly new online capabilities developed during 2008," Miller relates. "While it is thus far unclear if users will warm to this tool, it shows some of the potential for non-traditional online banking services going forward."
Miller also lauds Wells Fargo in another area: communications. With things as they have been over the last several months, he says many banks have been trying to convey the right message to accountholders that their money would be safe. "A major theme of our Year In Review section within the Monitor Awards Report was site-based communications to clients, and while many banks tried to assure their accountholders about the status of their firm at various points during the year, few outreach efforts have been as consistent or comprehensive as the Wells Fargo transition blog," he comments.
After acquiring Charlotte-based Wachovia, Wells Fargo implemented the blog so employees from both companies could share their thoughts and communicate with each other as the two banks become one. "We have been very impressed with the Wells Fargo-Wachovia transition blog thus far," Miller says. "It does a nice job of combining perspectives from both of the firms involved, including occasional posts from upper-management types, while also answering the basic questions that clients have, such as 'when will the transition be complete?'"
Miller says Cleveland's National City instituted something similar after it announced it would be acquired by Pittsburgh-based PNC. It provides links from its homepage to an information sitelet that discusses the merger.
Going forward, Miller believes more banks will deploy Web 2.0-type tools like blogs and Twitter accounts in their battles to gain and retain customers as they reorganize or merge. Although several banks are starting to provide these services today, Miller says they need a bit more work to move from being promotional in nature to truly interactive and informative.
In the end, however, Miller does not think Web 2.0 tools will be the single element that makes the online banking site of tomorrow. Instead, it will be the more traditional tools, such as advanced transfer capabilities, personalized customer service answers via secure messaging and the information provided about a client's account on the private site, that will "continue to separate the best online banking sites from the also-rans."
Miller further notes that Bank of America, for example, consistently receives high marks within the report each year because of the variety of "well-cultivated tools that they offer. The firm provides accountholders with almost all of our benchmark tools and features, such as offering advanced funds transfer capabilities and a variety of account and security alerts, and does so in a well-organized private site. In addition, each year Bank of America seems to introduce new self-service capabilities to its private site, as well as refine its existing tools, even if just in small ways, a process that helps their site retain its Monitor Awards in various categories."
Each year, Corporate Insight looks at the 15 Bank Monitor banks and rates them on how well their sites perform against eight criteria/banking tools from both the public and private site areas of their sites, including: account selection tools, account information, bill payment capabilities, transfer capabilities, self-service features, alerts, private site help and online applications. The firm emphasizes that these specific site features are analyzed without attempting to rate banking services on an overall quality basis, nor does it represent a general endorsement of any one bank's site as a whole.
As a result, some high-quality banking sites many not receive many "Monitors" while other, less well-rounded sites may receive Monitors in recognition of particularly strong attributes. Excellence in the eight select categories of the report earns firms distinction.
Eleven Bank Monitor banks were given awards this year. Bank of America garnered the most awards in the most categories (seven out of eight categories) and is followed by KeyBank, E*Trade Bank, Chase, Wells Fargo, Wachovia, National City, Citizens Bank, Citibank, U.S. Bank and HSBC.
| | Fidelity Grabs Most Golds in Annual Web Race | 2/11/2009 | | |
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| | Putting Your Money Where Your Mouse Is | 12/17/2008 | | | Journal article that talks about the emerging usage of social networking sites to help manage personal finances and customer relationships.
| | Looking For A Leg Up? Join The Online Club | 11/17/2008 | | | IBD article exploring the role social media and Web 2.0 play in helping investors make trading and general financial planning decisions.
| | BROKER'S WORLD: Brokers Prep Clients For Low 3Q Statements | 10/6/2008 |  | | NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Brokers are scrambling to prepare their clients for low third-quarter account statements expected to hit clients' doorsteps in the next week.
The average brokerage client with exposure to equities will be facing asset losses of around 15% to 25%, analysts and brokers said. Many brokers are being proactive in calling their clients to warn them, and those who aren't could face the consequences.
"You're going to lose a handful of clients regardless, but you have to warn them or it's going to be a lot worse," said a broker and branch manager at Merrill Lynch & Co. (MER). He is having a strategy meeting with the brokers at his office to prep them on warning clients of their third-quarter results.
"Fortunately, I don't have any disasters, but my clients are still going to require a lot of hand holding," a Wachovia Corp. (WB) broker said.
While clients can almost always view their balance online, many less active investors don't look at it until they get the paper copy in the mail, said Scott Smith, analyst with the Boston consultancy, Cerulli Associates.
Smith estimated that it is probably 50-50 among advisors as to how many are calling their clients. "You can't hide from it. So what can you do but reach out to these clients and hold their hands?" he said.
A branch manager at Stifel Nicolaus said staying in touch with clients is the most important thing a broker can do in such volatile times. "The brokers can't control the market, but they can control how they handle what's happening in the market," the manager said.
Brokers who don't warn their clients ahead of time can expect to have their clients hounded by brokers at competing firms.
"I am telling my brokers to crawl out from under their desks and hammer those clients with phone calls next week. This is a phenomenal time for poaching clients from brokers at other firms," the Merrill broker said.
Smith said, "If brokers aren't calling their clients, they're just asking for it. Trying to react to screaming or even crying clients isn't fun." He said it's much easier to be proactive.
It is even more vital for brokers to get in touch with their clients if the firm is doing nothing to keep clients in the loop, said Mike Ellison, co-founder of Corporate Insight, a research firm covering the financial services industry.
Corporate Insight found that only 40 out of 101 brokerage firms surveyed had addressed the credit crisis with their clients as of last week. Only six firms sent letters describing their exposure, and just three offered video messages from their chief executives explaining the situation.
"Even if your firm is safe, you need to be telling clients that, or else they are going to assume something is wrong. Transparency is the key," Ellison said.
Smith recommended that brokers remind clients of the risk tolerance survey they filled out and that they agreed to their portfolio allocation. "And you have to tell them that just like the markets were going up, they are going to go down too," he said.
Some brokers are taking the optimistic approach in dealing with their clients.
"You have to be bullish when talking to clients," said the Wachovia broker. "When we come out of this, we will be a much more robust market than before." He said if clients think Wall Street is ruined, they will want to pull their money out.
It is important that brokers keep clients happy because without those assets, brokers have nothing. "I am very protective of my clients. I work for my clients, not for my firm," another Wachovia broker, formerly with A.G. Edwards, said.
| | Firms Need To Communicate In Crisis | 10/3/2008 |  | | Trading firms need to proactively communicate with their customers during this market crisis, a recent Corporate Insight study showed. The study found some of the most effective emails were from Charles Schwab, Merrill Lynch and Wachovia which confirmed things and explained their respective financial situations. Several firms used emails, their homepage and other methods of communication to distance themselves from the toxic investments or highlight their earnings to shore up confidence in their financial standing. "Take the opportunity to get your ceo out there, especially if you're doing well," said Mike Ellison, executive v.p. and co-founder. Other firms used this opportunity to prey on struggling competitors and expand their customer bases.
"Be proactive, be open and be consistent with the message," was the advice Ellison offered to firms. Ellison also suggested repeating the message to get it ingrained in the customer's head and having good communication from both the broker and the firm overall, as good communication from one over the other dilutes the overall message. Few financial firms have figured out how to use social networking sites, Ellison noted. "When you're in a crisis, it's not the time to start experimenting," he said.
| | Financial Firms Hone Message to Clients in Crisis | 10/1/2008 | | | Amid the financial turmoil, financial advisers might be better off sending their own message to clients, rather than relying on financial firms.
Some financial firms sent a more effective message than others amid recent market conditions, according to a recent report by research and consulting firm Corporate Insight. Some of the most impressive messages came from two advisers from Merrill Lynch and Wachovia, said Michael Ellison, executive vice president at Corporate Insight, speaking with PLANADVISER.com. Advisers have a unique opportunity to reach out with a message amid the current market, he added.
The most effective way to send a message to investors is by sending an e-mail, combined with something else, such as posting something on a homepage, Ellison said. “Financial marketers have a very important task on their shoulders right now to help calm investors … and they’ve got to do it proactively,” he said.
Corporate Insight has accounts at many financial firms, and therefore was positioned to analyze messages sent by financial firms. The firm reviewed e-mails and scoured 100 homepages of 78 companies, discovering some common themes in how firms are responding to the financial crisis last week (through September 26).
Using New Mediums
Financial firms used tactics such as messages from CEOs and expert commentaries, utilizing various mediums of communication. iShares, New York Life, and Vanguard all used video messaging. Some firms, including Merrill Lynch, used snail mail to send reassurance to clients. Forty firms addressed the financial crisis on their homepage and/or via e-mail, but only 11 of the firms sent clients e-mails. Ellison said it was surprising that so many firms said nothing at all.
According to Corporate Insight, many firms made a point to distance themselves from toxic investments, highlighting their good financial standing (interestingly, AIG was on the list of firms utilizing that method). Other firms used the crisis as a platform to gain new clients, including Fidelity and TIAA-CREF.
Four firms posted prominent homepage images or messages, as well as sent e-mails to clients (Charles Schwab, Fidelity, iShares, and Merrill Lynch), according to Corporate Insight. Ellison said those four firms stood out the most. Fidelity featured a link on its homepage to a page titled “In markets like these, Fidelity can help” page, and sent an e-mail offering a complimentary portfolio consultation. Charles Schwab reached out to investors both online and via e-mail with extensive information, including a link to a “letter from Chuck,” or Chairman Charles Schwab.
The report notes the different approach of iShares, which took the opportunity to focus on its transparency with an e-mail and a slogan emphasizing transparency at the top of its homepage for advisers. “If you look at the underlying cause of this whole crisis, it’s lack of transparency; nobody knows where the bad eggs are held … so transparency is a key thing that firms should hone in on,” Ellison said.
Merrill Lynch Deal
According the report, after Bank of America’s decision to purchase Merrill Lynch, both institutions posted announcements on their homepages. On the Merrill Lynch private site, an image linked to an open letter from Robert McCann, vice chairman and president of Global Wealth Management. The letter addressed the wealth management group, noting that it will continue to operate under the Merrill Lynch Wealth Management brand. The letter read that there would currently be “no change in the terms of the way you and your Financial Advisor conduct business together.”
Corporate Insight received an e-mail from its Merrill Lynch adviser on September 24, assuring investors of the financial safety of the institution and attaching a brochure titled “Why Your Accounts Are Safe at Merrill”—but the report notes that brochure was dated, as it didn’t mention the recent acquisition.
Ellison’s advice to advisers is: “Don’t necessarily rely on the firm documentation … because the Merrill stuff we received from Merrill Lynch the company was very generic; it looked like it could’ve been written five years ago…It gave no wording to what’s currently going on. But the broker himself did a really good job.”
| | When financial crisis escalated, firms failed to communicate with worried investors | 9/30/2008 | | | When the financial crisis escalated with the fall of Lehman Brothers, the AIG bailout and the sale of Merrill Lynch two weeks ago, firms failed to communicate sufficiently well online with their client base, according to a report.
The report found that 60% of the 101 top financial firms surveyed did not outwardly acknowledge at all the financial crisis to their clients.
Eleven firms distributed timely emails to clients – but several of these sent "lengthy, legal-type compliance documents, which made no mention of the fact that assets would become part of another firm due to a merger taking place," the Corporate Insight report noted.
Overall, just four firms posted both market-related homepage content about the crisis and sent emails to clients. These were Charles Schwab, Fidelity, iShares and Merrill Lynch.
"Utilizing both of these powerful mediums was the most effective way to reach out to investors during last week's market turmoil," the report said.
Meanwhile, despite growing concerns from investors, only six firms provided letters from upper management addressing their firm's exposure in light of the crisis.
Only five firms posted homepage images or messages focusing on Money Market Funds.
Just three firms offered video messages from their CEO.
The report, entitled "Market Messaging During the Financial Crisis," found that many of those that did post online responses to the crisis made it a point to distance themselves from toxic investments.
Many also highlighted earnings in a bid to prove their strong financial standing.
"Others saw the crisis as an opportunity to prey on struggling competitors and expand their customer bases," the report found.
"As the financial crisis affected some firms more than others, we saw varying response levels. AIG and Merrill Lynch both made adequate attempts to calm investor fears online. Washington Mutual also made reassurances online last week, however they failed to address their well-known solvency issues and rumors about their ability to remain an independent company," the study found.
“It was only after their acquisition was complete that the firm posted a public homepage image leading to a Chase message for Washington Mutual customers. The firm’s lack of openness with their clients during the crisis was inexcusable.”
On the other hand, Corporate Insight highlighted Charles Schwab as one of the stand-outs during the crisis.
"Charles Schwab's email [to investors] went at the heart of the matter concerning people watching banks fail – the firm is in good financial standing. In other words, your money is safe with them so don't worry. If we had to pick out one response as providing the best reassurances, this would be it," Tim Ullrich, VP of Monitor Services at Corporate Insight told WS&T.
| | Web 2.0’s Defining Moment | 9/26/2008 |  | |
| | Gasoline credit cards can help ease pain of rising fuel prices | 9/3/2008 |  | | NEW YORK (AP) - With fuel prices taking a bigger bite out of budgets, and no sign of an imminent price decline, you may be considering an offer for a gasoline rewards card.
These cards typically let cardholders accumulate points in exchange for a gift card or receive cash back on purchases. The savings typically run from 3 percent to 5 percent of your gas bill.
As with any credit card, you'll find considerable differences, so be sure to read the fine print. Take the time to go beyond the savings rate and check out savings limits, interest rates and other features.
What's more, before you sign up, investigate whether a general rewards card, which you may already have, offers any discounts for fuel purchases. It's common to find at least one gas station that participates in a card's general rewards program.
If you don't like toting around multiple cards, sticking with a general rewards card may be your best bet. But the savings on fuel with a general rewards card may not be as high.
"The advantage of gas-based cards is that you lock in a savings rate," said Doug Miller, senior analyst at Corporate Insight, a market research and consulting firm.
Whereas if you rely on a general rewards card, the issuer can change the terms for fuel savings, or place other limitations on when you can save.
Bankrate.com offers a useful comparison tool for gas rewards and other types of credit cards.
If you're on the road a lot, a gas card is definitely worth considering. One benefit is that the rebates are usually automatically credited to your account, or a gift card is sent, said Miller. It's not like frequent flyer programs where you might accumulate countless points, only to forget to redeem them before they expire.
There are potential traps to keep in mind, however. For starters, make sure that you're not being enticed by an introductory offer where the terms will change after a set period. Some issuers may give double the rate of savings for the first several months.
Also keep in mind that gas reward cards typically don't offer as high a rebate on non-gas purchases, often around 1 percent. So these cards may not help quite as much with other purchases.
Another option is the universal gas card. Universal gas cards let consumers reap rewards at any station and may seem tempting because of their flexibility. The major drawback of these cards is that they often cap rewards.
For example, Discover's universal gas card, the Open Road card, offers 5 percent cash back -- but only for the first $100 you spend each month. In other words, you'd save $5 at most every month on gas and auto maintenance.
"You could easily hit the limit after a few trips (to the station)" said Ellen Cannon, managing editor for Bankrate.com.
The Open Road card offers other perks, however, such as a 5 percent to 20 percent cash back bonus at certain online retailers and 1 percent savings on other purchases after total annual purchases exceed $3,000.
Assuming you stop at the same gas station most the time, a card that's tied to a particular gas retailer is probably a better deal. These cards generally don't limit rewards, and typically offer savings of between 3 percent and 5 percent.
Also check that savings rates aren't "up to" a certain level. That means your savings are at a lower rate until you spend a certain amount of money.
"You may have to spend $2,500 before you get 5 percent back" Cannon said.
Lastly, don't carry a balance. Otherwise, the interest payments will eat into any savings you earn.
| | Some options for gas rewards credit cards | 9/3/2008 | | | A look at some options for gas rewards credit cards
Cards that offer 5 percent cash back rewards on gas with no cap on savings:
BP card by Chase
BP Visa card
Hess card by Chase
Marathon card by Chase
Sinclair card by Barclays
Capital One No Hassle Points Rewards
At least two universal gas cards on the market cap savings:
ChasePerfect -- Caps monthly savings at 3 percent of the first $500, or $15. After that, savings are the same as for all other purchases, 1 percent.
Discover Open Road -- Caps monthly savings at 5 percent of the first $100, or $5. Savings rate then decreases and climbs to 1 percent after total annual purchases exceed $3,000.
Sources: Bankrate.com, Corporate Insight
| | MoneyZone: Gas relief | 8/23/2008 |  | | The high cost of gas is leaving many New Yorkers strained and strapped for cash. But gas-based credit cards can help some commuters save money through earnings-based rewards, according to Corporate Insight, a market research firm.
Depending on the card issuer, some offer reward programs based on points, while others return a percentage of spending.
| | Survey Finds Paucity of Gas Rewards | 8/22/2008 |  | | As gas prices surge, a majority of credit card issuers may be missing an opportunity, according to a survey report published this week by the New York market research firm Corporate Insight Inc.
Corporate Insight did the survey in July, polling 12 major issuers that it tracks. Only four offer "gas-focused" rewards programs, according to the report, which was made available to the firm's clients Aug. 12.
Those four issuers — Barclays PLC's U.S. card division, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc., and Discover Financial Services — offer 21 gas-focused credit cards, according to Corporate Insight. Doug Miller, the banking and cards senior analyst at Corporate Insight and the report's author, said in an interview Thursday that such cards are either cobranded with gas retailers or "pretty much have 'gas card' in the title" and branding, like Discover's Open Road card.
Other issuers also offer increased points or cash-back on gas purchases as part of more general credit card rewards programs. But Mr. Miller said the survey did not count cards that include gas purchases as one of several ways to earn rewards. "We felt that these issuers, by attaching these types of [gas] purchases to other cards, are almost muddling the message" and "missing an opportunity" while consumer demand for gas-related rewards increases.
Issuers would get immediate benefits from gas-rewards cards, he said. Gas-focused rewards cards are "a great way to attract more clients and more spending from existing clients."
| | Invesco Cited For Best Web Site | 8/8/2008 |  | | Invesco Aim ranks No. 1 for the presentation and quality of its 401(k) resources, according to Corporate Insight. American Funds, Fidelity Investments, Oppenheimer and Putnam Investments round out the top five. Corporate Insight based its criteria on what resources are made available on firms' Web sites to help their advisors sell and service clients' plans.
Invesco Aim got top billing because it provides a "unique high-net-worth outlet, offers an on-page comparison chart and included a retirement glossary." The research firm gave it negative marks for not having white papers.
American Funds came in second because it "offers an extensively organized overview outlet, contains a recordkeeping comparison chart, and includes a client interview outline." Fidelity ranked third due to its "chronological literature summaries within action plans," though, Corporate Insight called its resource menus "unhelpful." Oppenheimer came in fourth partly because it offers a plan site demo, while Putnam received high marks for displaying a sample client statement.
Lauren Wistrom, senior analyst, noted that not enough firms are producing advisor guides. Sixty-seven percent of firms in the report, including Invesco Aim and Fidelity, currently offer them. "More firms should be offering adviser guides," she said. "It's not something all firms are going to do, but this is really important, actually--it's essential. They should all have them."
Wistrom also pointed out that only 22% of firms offer a plan site demo on their respective Web sites.
Jeff Latzer, senior research associate, told DCSPA that he thought the number was surprisingly low. "It's interesting that such a small number of firms offer a plan site demo," he said. "[The demos] really help advisors and plan sponsors get better ideas and provide them with better insight so they have a grasp on what's going on. It's a much drier set-up if they're just looking at the bullet points of what they can offer."
Another key finding was that participants were more satisfied when they were given workbooks or worksheets. "Fifty-six percent [of firms] either offered a workbook or a worksheet and we see that as a good way to have a face-to-face interaction with the client," Latzer said. "It is really value-added material that can improve the client relationship."
Other highlights include:
- 44% of firms address participant education
- 53% of firms currently offer a resource area on their advisor sites devoted to 401(k) plans
- 44% address client segmentation
Nine firms were used in the study, which was conducted online in July 2008. DWS Investments, AllianceBernstein, Van Kampen and Federated were also included. This is the first year the firm has conducted this study.
| | Study: Invesco AIM tops in 401(k) resources | 8/5/2008 | | | Invesco Aim of Atlanta scored Number 1 in providing best 401(k) resources, according to a study released by Corporate Insight Inc.
The firm was touted for offering management strategies for high-net-worth companies and individuals.
It was also the only firm among the nine surveyed that displayed a plan comparison chart on its website.
Following Invesco, the top three companies ranked by the New York-based research firm were the American Funds Group, advised by Capital Research and Management Co. of Los Angeles, Fidelity Investments of Boston and OppenheimerFunds Inc. of New York.
The rankings were based on organization, architecture and plan-site demonstration and on resources such as workbooks, comparison charts and participant education.
Only 53% of the firms monitored by Corporate Insight offered resource areas on their adviser sites devoted to 401(k) plans, according to Corporate Insight.
Of the 67% of firms that offered adviser-only 401(k) guides, Fidelity provided the strongest, including a full prospecting and selling plan and explanations, Corporate Insight said.
Forty-four percent of the firms addressed participant education.
Oppenheimer offers a resource outlet that groups clients into different behavioral categories.
Fifty-six percent of the firms offered 401(k) worksheets.
| | Where Do Advisors Get the Most 401k Resources? | 8/5/2008 |  | | Consulting firm Corporate Insight took a look at how fund firms are helping advisors navigate the 401(k) terrain, and found that Invesco Aim is above its peers.
Invesco Aim, according to New York-based Corporate Insight, equips advisors with a wide range of 401(k) resources, and is the only firm to show a plan comparison chart on the overview page of its website.
Others that cracked the top four are American Funds, Fidelity, and OppenheimerFunds.
Corporate Insight tracks a total of 17 fund companies, but only nine were applicable to the study, according to a Corporate Insight spokeswoman.
Of the fund firms that Corporate Insight looked at, 53 percent have resource areas on their advisor Web sites dedicated to 401(k) plans.
Sixty-seven percent of firms offer 401(k) guides to advisors, and Corporate Insight singled out Fidelity’s as the “strongest” of the lot, with a full prospecting and selling plan explained alongside summaries of relevant, thumb-nailed literature components.
Fidelity, too, is the sole firm that provides white papers.
Of the fund firms studied, 56 percent offer 401(k) worksheets.
| | Stock Sites Get 'Social' In 2.0 Era | 7/30/2008 | | | By Brian Deagon
Two years after retiring from Microsoft Peter Kurata decided to manage his own stock portfolio, dismayed by the performance of his financial adviser.
He began studying investment methods and strategies, and today has 80 "followers" who watch — literally — his trading to consider whether to buy or sell the same stocks. Kurata's trades are followed on Covestor.com, which he joined in August 2007. Covestor is one of a new crop of investor-oriented Web sites where users gather to chat, read or write blogs, and look over the shoulder of fellow traders.
"There is no better way to learn investing than to see trades in real time and ask investors how they do it," Kurata said. "It's like having a personal training coach."
Kurata was having a good year. On July 15, his portfolio was up 35%. But the next day one of his holdings — an ETF, or exchange traded fund — plunged 21% and continued a downward spiral for a few days, wiping out his gains for the year.
"OK, I really blew it," Kurata wrote on his blog page. "I had two successful trades then let emotions kick in. Greed, pride, all the stuff that kills investors."
On his Covestor-linked blog site, where the longtime IBD subscriber is known as IBDInvestor, Kurata explained why he initially bought the stock and the sell signals he missed on that fateful day.
"I had my biggest one-day loss ever," he wrote. "Best of all, I learned a valuable lesson which will equate to future profits."
Covestor lets its users track members' trading activity, with the members' permission. It doesn't disclose the number of shares traded, but it identifies the stocks traded and the prices. The data come from an investor's online trading account, to guarantee accuracy. Some investors tracked on Covestor.com boast triple-digit gains.
"I have been amazed by the talent," Kurata said. "Their performance consistently runs circles around mutual funds."
Try To Outperform Pros
Covestor and sites like it have brought online investors into a new world. The Internet fueled a major upheaval in the financial services market more than 10 years ago, with the arrival of online discount brokers.
The newer sites have added a Web 2.0 element for individual stock investors, such as social networking features that let people inside the minds of active traders. Many users of these sites are passionate about investing and believe that they can outperform the market without help from professional advisers.
"There's little evidence to support the notion that professionals outperform individuals who manage their own portfolio," said Steve Carpenter, chief executive of Cake Financial, an investor Web site launched last year. Cake tracks the performance of its members. It posts a wide array of stock information provided by users and notes which stocks are being widely sold or bought, among other features.
The site is launching a new feature that will suggest stocks to consider, based on an individual user's trading profile, much like the way Netflix recommends movies based on what people have rented from it in the past. The combined asset value of all Cake members is approaching $1 billion, Carpenter says. "These are smart investors who do their homework," he said.
A recent report by consulting firm Corporate Insight says the potential of social networks are just starting to be tapped by financial services companies.
"Over the long term, these sites will have an impact on traditional financial advisory services," said Alan Maginn, an analyst at Corporate Insights. "Traditional brokerage firms will have to get involved with this whether they want to or not."
Other investor-oriented Web sites with social features include Vestopia.com, Stockpickr.com, ValueForum.com and Marketocracy.com.
Online brokerage firm Scottrade recently added a community forum to its site. It lets Scottrade customers collaborate and discuss new ideas and how they trade, says Kristin McDougall, Scottrade's customer education manager.
As to whether Scottrade would add more Web 2.0 features of the kind Cake and Covestor offer, that's being studied, she says.
"We're watching this space more closely," McDougall said. "We'll roll out new features slowly to be sure we do it right."
Other brokerages are treading cautiously as well. Most offer chat rooms and forums on their Web sites, but most don't have platforms that let clients engage more fully.
'All About Trust'
But at least two online discount brokerages, TradeKing and Zecco, have been aggressive in rolling out Web 2.0-type community features.
Zecco, which allows free trades with a minimum deposit account, has social networking features, forums, communities and blog activity on its site. It has teamed with Motley Fool, another personal investing Web site, to offer a rating service that recommends stocks and tracks their performance in real time.
"This industry is all about trust," said Jeroen Veth, Zecco's chief executive. "We allow our audience to share factual portfolio data, showing that they own the stock they're recommending and putting their money where their mouth is."
Zecco lists the top stock holdings of its members and which companies are being actively traded. On the day before Apple was to launch its new iPhone, for example, Apple topped that list, with 14 people buying the stock and 10 selling. Another feature spotlights Zecco's top-performing traders over the past three months. A recent look on the site found a gain of 899% for the leader. The next five also had triple-digit gains.
Zecco has more than 100,000 account holders, and it says half are actively involved in communities.
"Communities are a great research tool," said Tony Leach, Zecco's product manager.
Some agree.
"The typical brokerage only provides you with a basic set of research tools," said Perry Blacher, chief executive of Covestor. "But they don't tell you how you're performing against benchmarks and how you're doing compared to other individuals."
| | Brokerages Primp Sites To Attract Clients | 7/30/2008 | | | Brokerage firms should be focusing more on perfecting their homepages as they often serve as firms’ first point of contact for both current and prospective clients, a study by consultancy Corporate Insight showed. “A homepage is kind of an elevator pitch. As opposed to five minutes, you’ve got one page to say who you are, what you offer and why you’re better,” analyst David Rosenberg said. The study ranked public homepages of retail brokerages firms, with the top three being E*TRADE Financial, TD Ameritrade and Sharebuilder.
Sixty percent of the twenty firms reviewed provide login fields and index quotes directly on the homepage. Of those firms, 58% also provide index mini-charts and 58% include a quote lookup field. Only 35% of firms have a branch locator directly on the homepage.
The three top firms offer essential functions, including login fields for existing clients, branch locator fields and market data. They also offered information for different types of potential and existing clients. The effective homepages cater separately to the three different types of Web site visitors—novices, experienced investors considering a new account and existing clients who need quick access to the private site. Firms that didn’t measure up either tried to cram everything onto one page, or neglected to highlight their retail offering. Rosenberg declined to name the laggards.
| | Legg Mason Rolls Out Customized Site For Distributors | 7/25/2008 |  | | Legg Mason is rolling out an integrated Web site that offers wirehouses and independent broker/dealers customized access to Legg Mason offerings while also functioning as an intranet for its own wholesalers. Initially most features will be customized by firm, though Legg Mason plans to move toward allowing customization by individual brokers.
Smith Barney became the first wirehouse to access the site last week and over the next few weeks Morgan Stanley, Citigroup Investor Services and Raymond James will follow. A second rollout will occur in the fall when independent BDs LPL Financial Services, Ameriprise, Wachovia Securities and Primerica Financial Services will access the site. The move is part of Legg Mason's efforts to expand its distribution beyond Smith Barney, whose parent firm Citigroup swapped its asset management arm for Legg Mason's brokerage arm in late 2005.
On the site, brokers see only Legg Mason offerings available through their firms, while wholesalers can access the whole fund line as well as internal marketing data on which funds customers show the most interest in. Wholesalers can easily toggle between their own site view and that of the firms they work with, making it easy to keep track of which sectors are being targeted by individual advisors.
Each broker/dealer will have access to the prospectuses, fact sheets and marketing materials relating to the funds their firm is authorized to sell available on their version of the site, along with podcasts, whitepapers, conference calls and other general multimedia content.
The site was developed by the company's internal interactive marketing team. Legg Mason declined to discuss costs of the project.
Such a customized, targeted site is unusual among fund firms, said Alan Maginn, senior analyst at Corporate Insight. Fidelity Investments is the only other firm that has a similar customized site. Fidelity's site caters to both brokers at wirehouses and small independent advisors who need back office support.
In the third phase, set for early next year, Legg Mason hopes to make the site available to all broker/dealers that distribute its funds.
| | Online Brokers Gain Assets At Wirehouses' Expense | 7/22/2008 | | | By Brett Philbin
July 21, 2008
NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--As wirehouse brokerage firms narrow their focus to the truly wealthy, assets from some "mass affluent" clients are migrating to online brokers.
Charles Schwab Corp. (SCHW) and TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. (AMTD) added a combined $30 billion in net new assets this quarter, boosting their quarterly earnings.
They may be benefiting from a shift in how the brokerage industry works. Traditional brokers are shifting from making money on transactions to a fee-based business model, making wealthier clients particularly desirable.
That leaves opportunities for the online brokers, who may be able to snare some of the smaller clients' assets - or, on occasion, the clients themselves.
"As the full-service firms go higher and higher upstream, there is a bigger segment of the market (with) significant assets that aren't as attractive" to the big brokerage firms, said James McGovern, a vice president at Corporate Insight, a financial services research and consulting firm. "That's where companies like Fidelity, Schwab, or Ameritrade can attract clients."
On Wednesday, Charles Schwab posted second-quarter earnings slightly ahead of analysts' estimates. The San Francisco online broker added $26 billion in new assets in the quarter. Schwab said its total client assets rose 1% over the previous year, to $1.4 trillion, as it added $10 billion in net new assets in June alone.
Rival TD Ameritrade, which is transforming its business focus from retail trading to asset gathering, added $4 billion in net new assets in the second quarter, for a year-to-date increase of $20 billion. The company's total client assets were $309.2 billion as of June 30 - a 4% increase year-over-year.
"We are seeing our clients bring more of their money to us," said TD Ameritrade Chief Executive Joe Moglia during a Thursday conference call with analysts. "That is probably coming from full-commission firms."
For TD Ameritrade, its asset-gathering strategy means targeting mass affluent investors, which it defines to include those with between $100,000 and $1 million in investable assets.
"I just think the industry itself - Schwab, Fidelity, Ameritrade, and even E*Trade (ETFC) - is improving" its products, said FBR Capital Markets analyst Matt Snowling.
He added that a recent push toward more banking and portfolio allocation services has made the online brokers more competitive with big brokerage firms.
"They are making it easier and easier to aggregate more of your assets in one place," he said.
Big securities firms insist they aren't ignoring these smaller clients. Citigroup Inc.'s (C) Smith Barney unit has a platform for what it calls emerging affluent clients - those with less than $500,000 in investable assets.
The service, myFi, which is short for "My Financial Life," offers checking accounts, debt consolidation, and financial advice.
UBS Wealth Management US, a unit of UBS AG (UBS), also has in recent months set up an Investment Center where financial advisors provide services over the phone for clients who have $1,000 to $250,000 in assets.
Analysts say brokerage firms are still at the top of the competitive landscape.
"What you aren't seeing is somebody at Merrill Lynch or Morgan Stanley saying I'm going to move my business and take it to Ameritrade," said Mike Carrier, a stock analyst at UBS.
However, while the clients themselves may not be heading to the likes of TD Ameritrade, some of their money at the margin is going there.
At Schwab, its leading position in servicing registered investment advisors gives it the ability to add not only assets, but also new clients who use financial advisors.
"Right now, because of the difficulties in the capital markets with the wirehouses, I think Schwab is getting more of their assets on the retail side and on the RIA side, Carrier said.
TD Ameritrade hopes to pick up some of those clients as well. Its purchase of TD Waterhouse Group Inc. in 2006 gave the company access to a national network of registered investment advisors.
| | Banks Use YouTube to Engage Customers (Video) | 7/16/2008 |  | |
| | Riding the Retirement Wave (Subscription Required) | 6/2/2008 | | |
| | How Issuers Navigate Airlines' Turbulence (Subscription Required) | 5/27/2008 | | |
| | Firms Must Act to Lure Aging Boomers | 4/25/2008 | | | Fund firms must do more to serve aging baby boomers on the brink of retirement, according to an industry analyst. While some firms are developing post-retirement products, they are coming up short in areas such as customer service and education, said Michael Ellison, executive v.p. at Corporate Insight. He suggested programs tailored to boomers, such as special newsletters and investment seminars and educational efforts that focus on what retirees can afford and where to invest their money. He said that Fidelity Investments and Charles Schwab & Co. have done a good job in this area. “This generation is the first group to retire that’s looking at another 20 or 30 years of life,” said Ellison. “They need their money to last that length of time.”
Ellison said firms should hire older staff for call centers and wholesaling teams. “If I’m 65 or 70 and I talk to someone who looks or sounds like they just graduated from college, I’m going to have a hard time trusting them,” he said. Firms should also consider more practical steps, such as larger font sizes in their brochures for older investors with poor eyesight, he added.
| | New Product Seen Giving Amex Edge in Airline Fight (Subscription Required) | 4/24/2008 | | | American Express Co. and Delta Air Lines Inc. have developed a reward card that observers called the most expensive in the airline cobranding sector and evidence that the companies' partnership would survive Delta's proposed acquisition of Northwest Airlines Corp.
The Delta Reserve card, which Amex and Delta unveiled Tuesday, carries a $450 annual fee. David Rabkin, the vice president of Delta cobrands for Amex, called the product "a super-premium card, the most elite card in the market," in an interview this month.
Amex will not "market it as broadly" as its other airline reward cards, "because we don't think that it's a card for everybody," he said. "We're pretty confident that people … will find us."
Cardholders can accumulate "medallion-qualifying miles" — those that earn automatic seat upgrades, companion tickets, and waived baggage fees — at a faster rate than other cards offers. Also, the cardholders can share those miles with family members and friends. Other perks include airport-lounge access, concierge service, and priority boarding and security lines.
Issuers are eager to maintain their airline cobranding programs, one of the few that can still command fairly high annual fees and attract affluent customers.
The Delta-Northwest deal has raised the question of whether Amex, which issues Delta's SkyMiles cards, or U.S. Bancorp, which runs the Visa-branded WorldPerks card program for Northwest, would win control of a combined program.
"I try not to bet against Amex," said Doug Miller, a senior analyst at the New York market research and consulting firm Corporate Insight Inc. "If the merger goes through, I certainly see them making a better offer," though "you never know how these agreements are written."
One thing that is clear is "Amex doesn't think it's about to get boxed out of being the Delta issuer," Mr. Miller said. "They wouldn't undertake a launch like this if there were any question in their mind about how things are going to play out."
The most expensive cobranded card offered by U.S. Bancorp, the Northwest WorldPerks Visa Signature card, carries a $90 annual fee.
For the Minneapolis banking company, an elite product like Delta Reserve "far outstrips any experience they would seem to have with fee-based cards," Mr. Miller said. "It would seem to be out of their area of expertise."
U.S. Bancorp would not discuss the matter.
Previously the most expensive Delta SkyMiles product was an Amex Platinum card with a $135 annual fee. (The issuer offers reduced annual fees on its airline cards for people who already carry an Amex charge card.)
As a general matter, cards cobranded with airlines are "the most expensive mainstream nonpremium cards" that issuers offer, Mr. Miller said. "I've never heard about a company trying to get rid of an airline cobrand."
Mr. Rabkin said the development process for the Delta Reserve card started almost two years ago. The first product of that process was the Pay with Miles program announced in late February, which lets Delta SkyMiles Gold or Platinum cardholders pay for any Delta ticket using a combination of miles and cash, rather than waiting until they have enough miles to cover the price.
"The top issue was clearly redeeming seats, and Pay with Miles addresses that," he said. "The second issue was status," which Delta Reserve addresses. "You can pop up to the next tier of status through spending that's off the airline," rather than through taking enough flights.
| | Banks Struggle to Cross-Sell Online | 4/1/2008 | | | For more than a decade now, consumers have expected to be able to bank any time, anywhere. Yet two recent studies reveal that many financial institutions still fail to fully leverage the online channel to sell and cross-sell products.
While large banks have dramatically improved the usability of their Web sites in the past 12 months to 18 months, small to midsize banks have not achieved a high level of usability, which is critical to customer retention, according to Chicago-based Vox's Fourth Quarter 2007 Banking Mind Model Study. Vox reports that 91 percent of online customers who had a bad experience on a self-service Web site will not return.
The ability to accomplish tasks online quickly and easily is key to relationship building, says Bill Cusick, CEO of Vox. "If you get someone to sign up for online banking, the retention shoots up," he asserts. "If retention shoots up, cross-sale opportunities expand. But all you need is one little glitch and you can destroy the relationship before it even starts."
Beyond usability, Cusick adds, banks need to do a better job of targeting offers. Even some of the large financial institutions are guilty of throwing offers in front of the masses with the hope that someone will take advantage of them. To improve results, however, banks should leverage analytics technologies to identify profitable customers, understand their behavior and needs, and promote targeted product offers that provide "relevant value," Vox says.
Banks also need to develop better approaches to interacting with customers via e-mail, text messaging and mobile banking, Vox adds. This will be the key to winning technology-savvy Generation Y customers and retaining them, according to the research.
A report published in November 2007 by New York-based Corporate Insight also indicates that banks can do a better job of cross-selling on their Web sites. The Corporate Insight study found that while most banks do a good job of promoting products on their public sites, they do not take advantage of cross-selling opportunities on their private, customer sites. Fifty-three percent of the 15 financial firms' private Web sites reviewed by Corporate Insight displayed general graphic ads for banking products, but few provided details about the offerings. Only Bank of America (Charlotte, N.C.) and Citi (New York) had pages dedicated to special offers targeted at existing customers on their private sites, according to Corporate Insight.
A Captive Audience
"Part of the reason we think cross-selling on the private site is so important is because it's a captive audience," explains Doug Miller, senior analyst for banking and cards at Corporate Insight. "You've already got your client, and you can advertise to them in an environment where there's no other ads for them to look at. You're just trying to expand your relationship with them."
Among the best practices that Corporate Insight recommends to improve the cross-selling potential of banks' Web sites is to promote a separate "special offers page" on the private site providing product details and a link to an online application. Also, banks should provide links that allow customers to navigate between the public and private sites without being logged off. "There's a lot of low-hanging fruit for the designs they already have," says Miller.
Bruce Graham, executive director of Landmark Technology Partners (Braintree, Mass.), points out banks need to do a better job of aggregating retail and investment accounts to identify cross-selling opportunities. But, he contends, third-party solutions, such as Landmark's BankBroker product, can help banks pull together customer information.
| | 3/20/2008 | | |
| | VA Providers Underutilizing Web Marketing (Subscription Required) | 3/20/2008 | | |
| | ING Leads Firms Offering Annuities in Marketing of Products to Financial Advisors Says New Report from Corporate Insight | 3/17/2008 | | | New York, NY – March 17, 2008 – Corporate Insight, the leader in competitive intelligence research for the financial services industry, recently examined the methods that ten firms offering annuities use to market products and product-related content to advisors online. The research focused on the two most-trafficked areas of a firm’s advisor site – the advisor homepage and annuity section. Collectively, the firms featured average product marketing content on the advisor website, leaving plenty of room for improvement.
“The firms’ largest shortcoming was in the lack of promotional content positioned within the annuity sections of their Websites,” said Ben Pousty, Senior Analyst at Corporate Insight. “Only four firms offered promotional images on the annuity overview or product pages while just one firm provided a Flash promotional video. By neglecting the annuity section, firms are throwing away an excellent opportunity to market their annuity product and living benefit riders.”
In this 53-page report entitled, “ Product Marketing: The Advisor Experience,” the New York-based firm evaluates each firm using a set of 10 specific attributes and examines the advisor homepage, advisor site annuity section, and advanced product marketing features. Research found that only one firm - ING - performed well overall, and no firm excelled in all criteria. The report also contains detailed findings, a summary matrix, and specific recommendations on what firms can do to improve their product marketing efforts.
Key findings include:
- 90% of firms offer linked promotional images on the advisor homepage
- 70% of homepage promotions include literature/marketing materials
- Only one firm promotes a sales tool on the homepage
- 40% of firms offer Flash-based promotions on the homepage
- More than half the firms ignore the potential for promotions within the annuity section
- Sales campaigns are featured online by 70% of firms
| | Direct Savings: Still No Easy Way In | 3/5/2008 |  | | Direct savings accounts have been growing more popular—one-in-five U.S. households has a Net-bank relationship—but so have the weeds serving as obstacles to their attraction. Thanks to Fed interest-rate reductions, the five-percent account is as dead as $2-a-gallon gas. And, in a new report from research firm Corporate Insight, institutions offering DSAs still largely make them difficult to open, fund and maintain within a personal finance ecosystem.
The Corporate Insight study of 11 of the top DSA providers—among them ING Direct, E*TRADE and Emigrant Bank—showed service shortcomings still afflict these accounts. Beginning with a multi-page, lengthy application process, customers who hurdle the marathon process may find their reward is having to wait some more: either to mail in a check for the initial funding, physically sign enrollment papers or agreeing to pay a previously unnoticed monthly fee.
Only a “handful” of Net banks offer immediate access to the private site upon opening an account, and only seven of the 11 surveyed offered a unified account interface with the customers’ existing checking account, per Corporate Insight. Believe it or not, some don’t even post information on current savings rates after the account’s opened, says the report’s author, senior analyst John Cantwell. He confesses the findings were “a little bit surprising, because the ultimate idea behind DSAs is simplicity.”
None of the institutions were strong across the board in Corporate’s criteria. Even category leader ING Direct, for example, provided a poor transactional search tool with its otherwise stellar capability in lifetime statement archives. The latter compares quite favorably to other banks where archives may only go back 90 days. Some with limited archives also offer no paper statement options.
| | Firms Offering Direct Savings Accounts Fall Short in the Account Opening Process Says New Report from Corporate Insight | 3/4/2008 |  | |
New York, NY – March 4, 2008 – Corporate Insight, the leader in competitive intelligence research for the financial services industry, recently concluded a comprehensive review of best practices in the competitive Direct Savings Accounts (DSA) space. The offerings of eleven leading firms offering DSAs were analyzed, focusing on aspects of the DSA experience.
| | Firms Offering Direct Savings Accounts Fall Short in the Account Opening Process Says New Report from Corporate Insight | 3/4/2008 | | | New York, NY – March 4, 2008 – Corporate Insight, the leader in competitive intelligence research for the financial services industry, recently concluded a comprehensive review of best practices in the competitive Direct Savings Accounts (DSA) space. The offerings of eleven leading firms offering DSAs were analyzed, focusing on the following aspects of the DSA experience:
Account Attributes
Account-Opening Process
Private Site Account Information
Transfer Capabilities
Customer Service Options
“Firms show most room for improvement in the account-opening process – a key aspect of the DSA experience,” said John Cantwell, Senior Analyst at Corporate Insight and author of DSA report. “Applications generally were too long, and many did not allow users to set up key aspects of their accounts. There is significant room for improvement on the client sites, as well. No firm excels in all aspects of account information – activity and statement archives are either too small or lack the filtering capabilities necessary to make sense of them.”
In this 85-page report entitled, “Direct Savings Accounts: A Best Practices Review” (www.corporateinsight.com/directsavingsreport), the New York-based firm evaluates each firm using a set of over 90 specific attributes. Research found that a few performed admirably overall – notably E*TRADE Bank, Emigrant Bank, and ING Direct, but no firm excelled in all areas of the DSA experience. The report also contains detailed findings, a summary matrix, and 17 specific recommendations on what firms can do to improve their DSA offerings. In addition to the report, Corporate Insight also offers a copy of all of the new account welcoming and on-boarding materials along with site movies of each firm's online application process.
Key findings of the report include:
The most competitive account offerings require a small initial deposit and do not charge a monthly fee
The best online applications were short and provided a number of different funding and account setup options
Only a handful of firms give users immediate access to the client site
lmost every firm’s account information offerings needs improvement
ust seven banks offer unified transfer interfaces – the most user-friendly transfer layout
| | Washington Mutual Relaunches Wamu.com | 2/20/2008 | | | By Nancy Feig
Bank Systems & Technology
February 20, 2008
In keeping with the trend of offering customer-centric financial services, Washington Mutual ($327 billion in assets) recently revamped its brand. Under the catchphrase, "Simpler banking. More smiles," the Seattle-based bank aimed to improve customer satisfaction by eliminating complexity throughout the bank. As part of the process, Washington Mutual relaunched its Web site, wamu.com.
To improve the customer experience, the new site features enhanced navigation and functionality, according to Rick Starbuck, first VP of customer experience for WaMu's e-commerce group, who notes that the redesign took about 18 months. "It was a very user-centric, customer-centric design process," he says, explaining that the bank sought customer input on the pain points they were experiencing on the bank's site. The process included active consumer testing of five or six different prototypes over about seven months, Starbuck adds.
Improving ease of use and access to content were among the redesign's goals, Starbuck relates. He points to the new navigation bar on the site's home page, which he says enables users to reach content deep within the site typically in one click. The bank also simplified billpay setup. "Now there is a start page" that walks users through the process, Starbuck explains.
"Navigation was significantly upgraded as part of the site redesign," observes Doug Miller, senior analyst for banking and cards at Corporate Insight, a New York-based market research firm that evaluates bank Web sites. "The 'Your Accounts' tab, which houses the firm's private site functionality, now presents users with six well-organized subtabs, such as 'Accounts' and 'Transfer Funds,' which feature fly-out menus. These fly-outs allow users to scan the contents of each subtab without having to click anything, something we like immensely."
Sending the Right Message
In addition to enhancing the site's navigation, WaMu also set out to improve its messaging. According to Starbuck, the bank implemented customer personalization to allow returning customers to receive offers tailored to their needs. For three years prior to the redesign, he notes, every site visitor was presented with the same offer for free checking; now, returning users receive offers based more precisely on their needs and current relationships with the bank, Starbuck explains.
According to Starbuck, the site prototypes and user feedback helped the bank determine the best strategies for online messaging. "What works is very context-specific," he asserts, adding that print-oriented content "was too simple for the Web." Starbuck contends that online consumers want more density, more content and more breadth of design.
While WaMu's e-commerce group drove the project, it also sought input from the bank's lines of business as well as internal legal and compliance groups, Starbuck says, adding that this is not the first time the bank redesigned its Web site. According to Starbuck, there have been four redesigns in the past six or seven years. This initiative, however, represented the biggest internal effort, he says, noting that the only outside help the bank received was from its rebranding firm.
And while the changes to wamu.com appear cosmetic, WaMu also upgraded the site's underlying technology. "We recoded quite a bit of the application layer," Starbuck says, declining to specificy the technology on which the Web site is built.
WaMu also implemented some design elements from Web sites outside of the banking industry. "The customer forms opinions based on all their Web experiences," not just banking, Starbuck points out. One of those changes is a text "sizer" that allows visitors to choose how large or small to display words and buttons on their screens.
Customer response to the redesigned site has "been really great," WaMu's Starbuck says, adding that the bank has received "tons" of unsolicited positive feedback about the redesign.
| | 'Bankerages' a Rare Breed | 2/11/2008 | | | Cory Levine
257 words
1 February 2008
Wall Street & Technology
© 2008 CMP Media LLC. All rights reserved.
New research from Corporate Insight suggests that financial institutions are not taking full advantage of the Web to provide a complete range of "bankerage" services. In two new studies, Corporate Insight senior analyst David Rosenberg claims that only 40 percent of the 18 brokerages that the firm monitors can be considered a full bankerage, defined as a brokerage that offers traditional banking products, including FDIC-insured savings and checking accounts, with all accounts accessible via a single Web login.
Financial institutions have been allowed to combine banking and brokerage services since 1999, with the repeal of the Glass-Steagall act, paving the way for the bankerage movement. Success in this effort comes from making the online financial decision-making experience seamless, says Rosenberg. Among the key features offered by bankerages, he notes, is account aggregation. "You want to be able to see all of your accounts on the same screen to get a bird's eye view of your financial situation," Rosenberg says. "One really interesting feature that we think is very valuable is being able to combine your banking and brokerage accounts for overdraft protection."
While the online channel is heavily scrutinized as a means to attract business in the financial industry, the Corporate Insight studies suggest that firms still are not able to master simple account aggregation on the Web. "The biggest surprise, honestly, is that not more firms are offering this," says Rosenberg. "We definitely feel that they're losing out on business."
| | American Century is leader of online pack | 2/4/2008 | | |
| | American Century Best at New Online Accounts (Subscription Required) | 1/30/2008 | | |
| | Corporate Insight: American Century Investments Leads the Pack in Online Account Opening | 1/28/2008 | | | New York, NY – January 28, 2008 –Corporate Insight, the leader in competitive intelligence research for the financial services industry, recently examined the online account opening experience offered by the nine leading mutual fund firms that sell directly to consumers. Of these, three firms offer no facilities for submitting applications online: Dreyfus, ING, and RS Investments. The remaining firms – American Century, Fidelity, Janus, T. Rowe Price, Vanguard, and Wells Fargo all provide various tools accessible through their public Websites to help prospective customers with the account opening process.
“We evaluated the firms using the following criteria: accessibility, usability, and features, and found that American Century is the clear leader when it comes to the online application experience,” said Lauren Wistrom, Senior Analyst at Corporate Insight and author of Mutual Fund Monitor reports. “Although many of the firms covered in this report excel in one area or another, American Century scored perfect marks on all of our criteria. All fund selection assistance, help features, and resources were streamlined into the process, minimizing excess navigation, and ensuring that prospective applicants will have a smooth experience with as little or as much help as they need throughout.”
In this 59 page report entitled, Online Account Applications: Beginning a Relationship with Investors, the New York-based firm evaluated each firm using a set of 34 attributes. The report also contains detailed findings, a summary, and 11 specific recommendations on what firms can do to streamline and improve their online application processes.
| | Brokerages Still Fail to Offer Full Web-Based Banking Services | 1/23/2008 | | | By Cory Levine Wall Street & Technology January 23, 2008 New research from Corporate Insight suggests that financial institutions are not taking full advantage of the Web to provide a complete range of "bankerage" services. In two new studies, Corporate Insight senior analyst David Rosenberg claims that only 40 percent of the 18 brokerages that the firm monitors can be considered a full bankerage, defined as a brokerage that offers traditional banking products, including FDIC-insured savings and checking accounts, with all accounts accessible via a single Web login. Financial institutions have been allowed to combine banking and brokerage services since 1999, with the repeal of the Glass-Steagall act, paving the way for the bankerage movement. Success in this effort comes from making the online financial decision-making experience seamless, says Rosenberg. Among the key features offered by bankerages, he notes, is account aggregation. "You want to be able to see all of your accounts on the same screen to get a bird's eye view of your financial situation," Rosenberg says. "One really interesting feature that we think is very valuable is being able to combine your banking and brokerage accounts for overdraft protection." While the online channel is heavily scrutinized as a means to attract business in the financial industry, the Corporate Insight studies suggest that firms still are not able to master simple account aggregation on the Web. "The biggest surprise, honestly, is that not more firms are offering this," says Rosenberg. "We definitely feel that they're losing out on business."
| | How American Funds Helps FAs Talk Volatility (Subscription Required) | 1/17/2008 | | |
| | Cross-Selling Remains Online Hurdle for Banks | 1/16/2008 | | | Most banks are dropping the ball with online cross selling to their existing customers, or so says a senior analyst at Corporate Insights. A new benchmarking report by Douglas Miller found that only two major banks—Bank of America and Citi—are utilizing banner ads and special offer pages to get customers signed up for ancillary business. “Some firms that use rotating, small graphic ads on their home pages use them to sell additional account features, as opposed to separate accounts,” says Miller. “Most of those features that are being promoted are things that do not generate more revenue.”
Corporate Insight’s study was focused on the private sites that customers see upon login, not the public home page. What made Citi and BofA stand out were the account details offered for specific products – prices, rates, etc. – versus “simply listing the names of available accounts,” says Miller. Both banks also offer stand-alone application pages that prompt the opening of new accounts.
While there have been growing CRM investments for improved data management across bank departments, and a hot trend of “lifecycling” customer relationships, banks still aren’t properly teaming all the business and operational lines together to sniff out secondary account opportunities. “It’s possible that a lot of the marketing and IT departments just don’t work very well together,” says Miller” They don’t see the potential for the younger generations…to be interested in more than opening new accounts. We almost feel that they are too concentrated on marketing things through different channels, and they’re just overlooking the private-site channel as a way to reach more Internet-savvy customers.”
| | Two fund companies excel in marketing | 1/15/2008 | | | By Sue Asci
Two mutual fund companies were cited as leaders in providing marketing materials to help financial advisers explain market volatility to their clients by Corporate Insight, a New York-based financial services research firm.
The winning firms – American Funds, advised by The Capital Group of Los Angeles and Van Kampen Investments of Oakbrook Terrace, Ill. – excelled in a competition in which the firms were evaluated based on accessibility, usability and content.
Marketing materials analyzed were brochures, prospecting products and PowerPoint presentations.
Corporate Insight evaluated the firms’ materials in four categories: basic offerings, accessibility, available formats and tactics used.
| | Improving the Web Experience -- Check image platform, self service and account selection offer areas to improve retail bank Web sites. | 1/15/2008 | | | Michael Ellison, EVP, Corporate Insight Since the early days of online banking, bank Web sites have improved in areas such as account alerts, authentication, navigation and design. But these mostly are modest changes that have not had much of an impact on the overall user experience.
At the same time, many brokerage Web sites have made significant strides. To compete, banks need to make some serious changes to their sites. Below are some best practices that would make bank Web sites easier to use and more valuable to customers and prospects.
Account Information
Upgrade your check image platform. A Corporate Insight survey found that 79 percent of regular bank Web site users consider check images "very" or "extremely important," making this one of the most important bank Web site features.
The good news is that nearly all banks offer the service. The bad news is that most sites suffer from key weaknesses in this area. Image archive is the biggest problem; half of the firms we cover offer archives of three months or less. Some firms also present images that are grainy or that fail to show the front and back of the check on a single page.
Banks should expand the depth of their archives to at least a year. Firms also should allow clients to see the front and back of an individual check simultaneously. As for image quality, grayscale is preferable to simple black and white.
Account Servicing
Offer more self-service functions to clients. Bank sites may offer a good mix of account information and transactions, but self-service capabilities often are limited - a missed opportunity for the industry. The industry leader here is Citibank.
Banks must embrace the concept of client self-service. For example, firms should allow clients to stop payment on checks by completing a simple online form. Clients should be able to change their contact information, and order checks and deposit slips via the bank site, rather than through a third-party site. These basic self-service functions will increase the value of a Web site, saving customers the trouble of having to contact customer service to make simple requests.
Prospect Experience
Add an account-selection assistant tool. The typical retail bank offers many different checking, savings and money market accounts to consumers, along with CDs, investment accounts, loans and other products. With so many choices, prospects may find it challenging to select the right account or account combination when navigating a bank's Web site.
Firms should address this issue by following the example of the big banks, such as Bank of America and Wells Fargo, which provide top-notch account-selection assistant tools. Taking the form of a questionnaire, these tools probe the prospect's interest in cash-management services and ask for basic financial and biographical information. Using this information, the tool suggests the account or combination of accounts that best suit the prospect's needs and offers links to open the account. Any financial institution offering more than a few different types of accounts probably could improve their customer conversion rates by offering a well-designed account-selection assistant tool.
| | Two Mutual Fund Firms Stand Out in Helping Their Advisors Explain Market Volatility, Says New Report from Corporate Insight | 1/14/2008 | | | New York, NY - January 14, 2008 -Corporate Insight, the leader in competitive intelligence research for the financial services industry, recently assessed the methods mutual fund firms are using to prepare advisors for wary clients during unstable market conditions. Each firm was evaluated using the following criteria: accessibility, usability, and content. Researchers analyzed marketing materials, including brochures, prospecting products, and PowerPoint presentations. The pieces were reviewed not just in terms of how effective they are at quelling client concerns about volatility, but their ability to provide portfolio reallocation advice, alternative strategy proposals, and stable fund recommendations. "Of the fund companies we follow, two major firms stood out from the competition in providing a variety of quality materials that can be utilized by a financial advisor to help deal with client concerns about market volatility: American Funds and Van Kampen," said Lauren Wistrom, Senior Analyst at Corporate Insight and author of Mutual Fund Monitor - Advisor reports. "American Funds offers advisors a well-rounded variety of resources aimed at helping clients deal with market instability. In addition to prospecting tools, client education pieces and a multilateral sales idea, the company offers four pre-arranged hypothetical illustrations intended to address client concerns about the economy." Wistrom continues, "Van Kampen, the other top performer, organizes its volatility-related materials into a single resource area entitled 'Navigating Volatility' and includes a variety of resources that contain a useful context in which advisors can discuss volatility issues and introduce inexperienced or anxious investors to the positives and negatives of market fluctuation." In this 38 page report entitled, "Reacting to Market Volatility: Calming Clients in Uncertain Times", the New York-based firm evaluated each institution using a set of 23 attributes in 4 categories: basic offerings, accessibility, available formats, and tactics used. The report also contains detailed findings, a summary, and recommendations on what firms can do to improve their materials to support advisor communications with investors concerned about market volatility.
| | Corporate Insight Report: Only Two Major Banks Excel at Online Cross Promotions | 1/7/2008 | | |
New York, NY - January 7, 2008 -Corporate Insight, the leader in researching and benchmarking the customer experience at retail financial services firms, recently examined how major financial institutions utilize their client-only sites to cross sell additional products to their existing customer bases. Research found that many firms are doing surprisingly little to cross-promote their services to their existing private site users. In fact, only a few firms are doing much beyond the most rudimentary steps to market additional products to existing customers.
"Of the banks we follow, two major firms stood out from the competition in providing the most comprehensive and attractive private site cross-promotional materials: Bank of America and Citibank," said Douglas Miller, Senior Analyst at Corporate Insight and author of Bank Monitor reports. "Both firms offer pages of special offers for users providing specific account details, instead of simply listing the names of available accounts, and each firm offers a standalone Apply page within its private site to prompt users to open new accounts."
Corporate Insight's Bank Monitor team used ten different attributes to measure cross promotional activities on the private Websites of fifteen leading financial institutions and ranked the banks accordingly. In this 47 page report entitled, "Private Site Cross Promotion: Selling Old Clients Something New" (www.corporateinsight.com/crosspromos), the New York-based firm evaluated each institution using three criteria: accessibility, content, and usability. The report contains detailed findings, a summary, and recommendations on what firms can do to improve their cross promotional efforts.
| | Online Tools To Assist With Opening Annuity Accounts | 1/1/2008 |  | | Earlier this year, Corporate Insight released a white paper chronicling the trials advisers face during the annuity account-opening process. Naturally, the paper was presented from the adviser's perspective and thus required a substantial number of interviews with current and former advisers. While the interviews were generally docile, one question in particular raised the ire of our advisers: What are the key inefficiencies associated with the annuity account-opening process? Sounding more like heated rants than calculated responses, advisers cited several major shortcomings, such as lack of communication by insurance firms, absence of online assistance and poor account form layouts. The major consequence of these inherent flaws is a prolonged turnaround time for completing applications and processing new contracts. As one can imagine, the effects on an adviser's business are significant, often resulting in decreased productivity and agitated clients. It's hardly surprising that when asked how the annuity account-opening process may be improved, advisers were armed with more than a few suggestions. The most resounding response we received called for firms to implement a more powerful arsenal of online tools that guide advisers through account openings in a meticulous fashion. Advisers argued that these types of resources will help ensure that more applications are received in good order, serving to expedite the account-opening process. As NAVA's straight-through-processing initiative gains steam and comes closer to fruition, there is an added focus placed upon moving account-opening tools online. As a result, our research shows that financial services firms are slowly beginning to implement more resources, created by both in-house and third-party vendors, that assist with the key aspects of the account-opening process. Transamerica TransExpress The most popular tools assist advisers with application completion and are offered by 46% of the firms we track. Among them, Transamerica's TransExpress for Annuities is far and away the most sophisticated account-opening resource. Powered by Finetre's AnnuityGateway, TransExpress assists advisers in completing new account applications online and then transmits the application and other required account-opening materials to the firm for processing via e-mail. Advisers can also use the tool to make subsequent payments and check the status of business once an account has been opened. TransExpress is the tool that most closely embodies the fundamental principles of NAVA's STP initiative. E-mail submission dramatically reduces the time it takes to submit application materials for processing, eliminating wait times associated with postal mail. Additionally, TransExpress closely monitors application completion, informing advisers of erroneous inputs and offering access to required supplementary forms, which may be filled online. This ensures that applications are submitted in good order every time. AXA Equitable Application Manager The AXA Application Manager is another powerful tool that guides advisors through every facet of the application completion process. Upon completing the application, the Application Manager then gathers the required supplementary forms and presents them in a printer-friendly format. New York Life's Application Wizard also provides advisors with detailed assistance in completing an application; however, the tool does not assist in form gathering. Overall, the annuity industry still has a long way to go in order to streamline the account-opening process. While many of the issues holding back STP are regulatory and legal in nature, the proliferation of sophisticated online application tools is a telling sign that the industry is headed in the right direction. (c) 2008 Annuity Market News and SourceMedia, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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