Data & Research July 28, 2014

Advisers Want Better Asset Manager Tech

Few financial advisers are satisfied with the technology offerings and communications resources at asset management firms, according to a recent kasina report.
Reported by

The report suggests that financial advisers often visit asset manager websites for information and services they cannot find elsewhere. To become a preferred provider, though, asset managers will have to reshape their messages, and focus on anticipating and responding to advisers’ business needs to ensure lasting success.

Nearly 500 U.S. financial advisers representing 97 firms were polled for the most recent edition of kasina’s annual report, “What Advisors Do Online.” The results show that advisers are interested in taking advantage of mobile, online and social media technologies to learn about investment strategies and products. Advisers also appear interested in new technologies to assist in interactions with investment product wholesalers and their own clients, the report suggests.

Never miss a story — sign up for PLANADVISER newsletters to keep up on the latest retirement plan adviser news.

“Advisers can be fickle, and what will set leading managers apart is the sophistication of their digital capabilities in building awareness and trust, and making it easy to do business in ways that are relevant to individual advisers,” explains Julia Binder, director at kasina and author of the report.

This report also reveals that about half of advisers want firms to personalize online content to their needs—actually a decline from past editions of the research. The report explains this as a result of stagnant innovation among most asset managers in customizable online content.

In addition, 71% of advisers want asset managers to let them choose the topics, managers, and products included in subscription emails. However, there are only 43% of firms that offer subscription email services at all, according to kasina.

“The need to personalize and customize the user experience is the focus of many of our recent discussions with our asset management clients,” explains Michael Cogburn, a senior consultant at kasina.

Other results from the report show email is by far the preferred notification option for advisers willing to receive asset manager content, with 86% of advisers preferring email. A little more than half of advisers (54%) connect with wholesalers on LinkedIn.

More information is available on the What Advisors Do Online 2014 research page.

Deals & People July 28, 2014

GRP Recruits Three from 401(k) Advisors

Three 401(k) Advisors consultants—Austin Gwilliam, Jason Jeskey and Kyle Posvistak—have joined Global Retirement Partners (GRP).
Reported by
Jason Jeskey is a former practicing ERISA attorney, who joined 401(k) Advisors in 2011 as a senior plan consultant and ERISA specialist. Bill Chetney, GRP’s CEO, says Jeskey will be GRP’s general and ERISA counsel. Kyle Posvistak, an investment adviser representative, joined 401(k) Advisors in 2007 to assist the RFP/benchmarking team, conducting DC searches from $1 million to $900 million in plan assets. Austin Gwilliam is a bilingual senior plan consultant who joined 401(k) Advisors in 2005.  Posvistak and Gwilliam will be part of the team in the GRP home office. “I am excited to have them on the team,” Chetney says.
 
GRP is a new retirement plan advisory firm and office of supervisory jurisdiction (OSJ) being built out of LPL’s acquisition of broker/dealer Financial Telesis (FTi) (see “LPL and Financial Telesis Create New RIA Firm“). GRP will team with LPL’s Hybrid RIA platform. Financial Telesis’s founder and CEO, Jim Williams, is president of GRP. Although the firm has launched, the official transfer date of the Financial Telesis advisers is August 14, and all the advisers’ securities licenses will be at LPL, with the RIA at GRP. 
 
Chetney says of the need to form GRP within LPL, all advisers are licensed with LPL but are required to have an office of supervisory jurisdiction (OSJ) at the broker/dealer (B/D). GRP is going to be the only “retirement-centric OSJ,” Chetney says, which he says is the last piece of the puzzle for LPL to fully specialize in retirement plans and “be dominant in this space.”
 
According to Chetney, part of the reason he was able to recruit the three men from 401k Advisors was because of the level of investment LPL is making in worksite education for participants. GRP is able to leverage the tools of LPL (because all the advisers have their securities licenses at LPL), making the OSJ more attractive for the retirement-focused advisers, who will not only be able to serve their plan sponsor clients but make a difference in the retirement success of plan participants.
 
Chetney hopes that GRP, and its leadership, will also be attractive to many of the “artists formerly known as NRP,” advisers he is now hoping will join GRP for their OSJ, many of whom are under home office jurisdiction now.

«