Products May 16, 2008

National Financial Unveils Multimedia Tools for Brokers and Advisers

The National Financial Broker&Advisor Center portal provides access to more than 100 business and trading resources for brokers and advisers via the Streetscape Workstation.
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National Financial, a Fidelity Investments company, launched the multimedia Web site designed to provide resources that can assist brokers and advisers in their efforts to grow their books of business and broker/dealer firms in their efforts to retain successful brokers. It is the newest enhancement to the Streetscape workstation and the National Financial Broker and Advisor Development Program, according to a press release from National Financial.

The Web site integrates more than 100 broker- and adviser-specific resources, including more than 30 multimedia pieces, such as education and training videos, informational podcasts and flash demos, according to National Financial. The portal also includes more than 40 continuing education (CE) modules as well as whitepapers and investor-level materials.

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“Increasingly, brokers and advisers are hungry for more marketing and professional development support to help them grow their books of business,’ said Sandy Metraux, Executive Vice President of Marketing at National Financial, in the release. “Exclusively through Streetscape, the Broker & Advisor Center consolidates numerous high quality resources that help brokers and advisers better service their investors and ultimately drive top-line growth.’

The release said the Broker & Advisor Center will offer the following:

  • information on investment strategies, best practices, sales ideas and investor-marketing materials (such as third-party financial markets insights and access to investor research);
  • product and service information (such as annuities and mutual funds), customized to allow brokers and advisers to see only the information and products related to their broker/dealer firm.
  • educational resources on investing, regulatory, and legislative changes, and financial planning.
  • news on the latest industry alerts, announcements, and investor communications from National Financial.

As part of the Broker & Adviser Center, National Financial developed a turn-key, six-week communications program to help broker/dealer firms increase adoption and usage rates of the Web site among their brokers and advisers, the release said. The program includes a two-minute multimedia demo that shows the main features and capabilities of the site, interactive e-mails sent to brokers and advisers that highlight new product and service offerings, and ready-to-use banner advertisements that firms can use on their own internal Web sites.

In Practice May 16, 2008

Fiduciary Responsibility Is Most Important Plan Sponsor Issue

Fiduciary responsibility and fee transparency are at the forefront of important issues in the 401(k) market, an informal survey of retirement plan consultants says.
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The majority of 40 of the industry’s most influential retirement plan consultants surveyed at an April Charles Schwab conference reported that fiduciary responsibility is the most important issue for plan sponsors today, followed by fee transparency and plan costs ranking second and third in order of importance.

When asked what issues have increased in importance for plan sponsors in the past three to five years, the majority of consultants said that fee transparency is the area that has grown the most in importance for plan sponsors.

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The consultants said the results of 2008 presidential election should have little or no impact on 401(k)s, and in general, consultants are not overly concerned with the current economic environment relative to the future of the retirement industry, according to Charles Schwab. Consultants surveyed did, however, see target-date retirement funds and the effects of Baby Boomers withdrawing funds from their 401(k)s as potentially having a larger impact on the retirement industry in the next five years.

The consultants also said the number of plan sponsors interested in evaluating switching plan administrators seems to be on the rise over the last few years. They also see a growing trend of 401(k) plans moving from wirehouse advisers to registered investment advisers (RIAs).


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