Products October 22, 2010

Tamarac Enhances Performance Reporting Software

Tamarac Inc., a provider of integrated portfolio management software and services, has created Advisor View, a new performance reporting application.   
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Advisor View allows advisers to view performance across all accounts in aggregate, by adviser, by household or by any custom grouping, Tamarac reported in a news release.

Other customizable features of Advisor View include:

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  • Dashboards for daily monitoring or for specific report details
  • PDF performance reports for brand-enhancement
  • Unlimited access for clients to view the health of their portfolios 
  • Using the vault capabilities, advisers can exchange documents with their clients online

“Advisers have had limited resources when it comes to self-service tools which can provide custom performance reporting and instant access to pertinent account information,” says Stuart DePina, CEO of Tamarac. “Advisor View provides a single view of firm-wide performance that can be instantly customized to meet the data needs of the adviser.  At the same time, advisers can dramatically improve their client communications by providing online access to performance in a secure and welcoming application that strengthens the firm’s brand.”      

Advisor View works specifically with Schwab Performance Technologies PortfolioCenter as a reporting overlay. Advisor View calculates performance daily, which enables the application to update reports instantly when custom date ranges and report settings are specified.

Data & Research October 22, 2010

Emotional, and Functional, Connections Drive Business

Cogent Research found that providers will gain business and loyalty from advisers if they are able to establish both a functional and emotional connection with advisers.   
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In a recent survey done by Cogent Research, “Advisor Touchpoints 2010,” advisers were asked to select which provider they feel most connected to, and then, to identify various emotions that come to mind when thinking of that provider.

Speaking to PLANADVISER, Christy White, Principal at Cogent, said that advisers were drawn to emotions which helped them fulfill four needs: collaboration, support, marketability, and personal connection.  A provider that is able to provide evidence of having these four criteria will fair best when working with advisers.

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The study used a new research method called “Emotion Mining,” developed by Tom Snyder, a PhD specializing in consumer behavioral patterns.  How it worked for purposes of this survey is that once advisers had in mind which firm they felt most connected to, they were asked to draw lines on a screen connecting positive words such as enthusiasm or contentment, as well as negative words, such as stress or insecurity.  Using the “Emotion Mining” technology, researchers were able to compare the results from all the advisers and determine which emotions were strongest or most prevalent.   (They were even able to analyze the psychology behind how straight or curvy the lines drawn between emotions were to come up with the results.)

With the results from the “Emotion Mining,” researchers were able to determine the high level of importance of collaboration, support, marketability, and personal connection.  For instance, emotions such as “confidence” or “security” can be matched to marketability. Advisers want products that are easily marketable in order to feel confident when making a pitch to prospective clients. They want to feel secure that the client will buy in to whatever the adviser is trying to sell. A trust-worthy brand and easy-to-understand pitch products are the marketing tools advisers look for at a functional and emotional level.

Cogent found that the companies that established the strongest connections with advisers are American Funds in the mutual funds space, iShares for exchange-traded funds, and Prudential Financial for variable annuity products.   

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