Corporate Insight’s latest Retirement Plan Monitor report
update finds that in
the past year, providers have launched new phone apps, tablet apps and revamped
mobile sites.
Only MassMutual introduced a mobile app while three firms
unveiled tablet apps: The Principal Financial Group, T. Rowe Price and
TIAA-CREF. The tablet apps all mirror the firms’ existing mobile platforms,
offering participants a consistent cross-platform experience.
The
Principal and T. Rowe Price introduced new responsive participant sites, thus
revamping the mobile browser experience. The new responsive designs not only
provide a uniform experience from desktop to mobile but also offer sleeker
interfaces and improved organization and navigation.
Most
firms with existing mobile platforms enhanced their offerings, including the
addition of transactions and tools. Charles Schwab and Transamerica both added
transactions for the first time to their mobile platforms – bringing the total
amount of firms that offer mobile transactions up to 11 out of 18 – and four
expanded their existing capabilities. This time last year, four of 17 firms offered transaction capabilities.
Fidelity,
The Principal, Transamerica and Voya Financial added mobile-friendly retirement
tools, allowing participants to assess their retirement readiness. Three of the
tools allow participants to conduct transactions directly from the results
interface. The addition of tools and transactions increases participant
engagement and encourages beneficial account changes, Corporate Insight says.
Additional
features, such as message centers and document sending capabilities, are slowly
appearing on mobile platforms. Sending documents, a feature added by one firm,
allows participants to use a phone’s or a tablet’s camera to upload documents,
similar to depositing a check on a mobile banking app.
Corporate
Insight suggests that going forward, firms should continue to add transactions,
tools and features such as the document upload to the mobile experience and
continue to incorporate responsive design, considering the increased dependence
on phones and tablets over traditional desktop computers.
Looking at actual
401(k), 403(b) and 457 accounts, Retirement Plan Monitor explores the plan
participant experience offered by leading defined contribution plan providers.
The research analyzes the online and offline user experience, with a focus on
website design and usability, online education tools, transaction capabilities,
participant account documents, plan fees and more.
By using this site you agree to our network wide Privacy Policy.
Financial services firms are increasingly partnering with
colleges and universities to develop financial planning curriculum in order to attract
new graduates to the profession.
Edward Jones, for example, has partnered with 11
universities to prepare students to take the Series 7 exam, the general
securities licensing exam required by the Financial Industry Regulatory
Authority (FINRA).
“The need for what we are doing is exploding faster than
anyone has expected,” says Matt Doran, the Edward Jones principal responsible
for the firm’s Financial Advisor Career Development Program. “There are 300,000
financial advisers in the U.S. and one-third of them could retire over the next
decade.”
Doran says there are simply not enough new advisers projected
to join the industry in the next five to 10 years, despite a small jump measured for 2014, to meet the growing need for financial
training and education. Exacerbating the problem, people are living longer
lives and are facing lower interest rates and few guaranteed retirement income opportunities
from a shrinking pension system. Facing these challenges, Americans need
financial advice today more than ever.
“Our goal is to create a more defined path to the financial
adviser profession,” Doran explains. “By giving undergraduate students enrolled
in financial planning programs the opportunity to study for the Series 7
program prior to graduation, we are helping them succeed in the required first
step of becoming a financial adviser.”
The program got off the ground when Edward Jones,
headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, learned that five years ago, the
educational partner it uses to train its financial advisers, Securities
Training Corp. (STC), had created a financial planning course for Bryant
University in Providence, with Fidelity Investments as the sponsor, Doran says.
“We thought the higher educational industry sounded like a better medium to
teach prospective advisers … Students
have classmates, projects, deadlines and an instructor.”
NEXT: What it takes
to make an adviser
The 11 universities that Edward Jones partnered with to
underwrite the curriculum were selected because they were schools where the
firm already had existing relationships, be it a school where the firm had
recruited talent, had alumni or sponsored a scholarship, Doran says. Currently, there are 200 students enrolled in
the Series 7 program throughout the United States. Going forward, Edward Jones
intends to partner with additional universities in locations where it would
like to expand, he says.
In conjunction with the academic program, Edward Jones has
hired 200 interns to work throughout their academic year, Doran says.
Likewise, Merrill Lynch has put together curriculum and
scholarships at 16 colleges across the United States, and the firm also gives
presentations on what a financial adviser’s job is like, says Racquel Oden,
head of adviser strategy and development for Merrill Lynch in New York. These
partnerships are critical, as Merrill Lynch adds 1,500 new financial advisers to its training program each year.
Merrill Lynch has in recent years restructured how new hires
work, Oden says. “The way you traditionally entered the business throughout the
past 50 years was through our traditional Practice Development Management
program,” which required each adviser to build their book of business
gradually, on their own. A year and a half ago, Merrill Lynch augmented that
with two additional programs: Team Financial Advisor and the Bank Team Financial Advisor.
“With the Team Financial Advisor program, you are hired onto
a team immediately,” Oden says. “You partner with a seasoned adviser on day one
to drive a skill set, be it planning, the investment portfolio or relationship
management. What is really important about this is they come in with a special
skill set but are look at as part of the team.”
The Bank Team Financial Advisor program is another option
Merrill offers new recruits to enter the business, becoming part of a team at a
Bank of America banking center, Oden says. On top of this, Merrill hires 250
interns every summer. “The summer intern program, and the Team Financial Advisor
and the Bank Team Financial Advisor programs are all anchored in teams,” Oden
says. “We now have new younger individuals joining our teams.” Currently, there
are 1,600 people in the Team Financial Advisor program and 600 in the Bank Team
Financial Advisor program.
NEXT: New advisers take
a different approach
Capital One Investing of McLean, Virginia, has also embraced
a team approach, says Yvette Butler, president of the firm. “The traditional
model of a hard salesman is a turnoff. That is completely different from what
we have built,” Butler says. “We are very much a digital organization and are
very much about partnership and teams. When you are placed in a branch, it is a
team effort to serve the customer. You don’t have to dial for dollars.”
Industry groups are becoming proactive about recruiting new
talent to the industry, as well. The Certified Financial Planner Board of
Standards (CFP Board) of Washington on November 18 announced the launch of the
CFP Board Center for Financial Planning to create academic programs for the
more than 240 colleges and universities that offer a CFP Board Registered
Program. However, CFP Board’s goal is not just to recruit young advisers but a
more diverse group of advisers.
“There are a number of growing problems facing the financial
planning industry,” says Kevin Keller, CFP Board chief executive officer. “We
have more CFP professionals over the age of 70 than under 30. Less than 6% of
CFP professionals are African American, Asian American or Hispanic. We need a
more diverse workforce. We also launched a women’s initiative several years
ago.
“The answer to all of this is the Center for Financial
Planning, to create a more diverse and sustainable supply of financial planners
and to create an academic home to support them,” Keller adds. “We will know we
have been successful when there is no longer a shortage of financial advisers,
when the population more closely matches the population of the U.S., and when
we have established a body of knowledge to support the profession like the professions of law, accounting and medicine.”