Products April 27, 2017

New Solution Automates Adviser Marketing Efforts

The solution is built around automated newsletters that establish regular contact with clients and prospects. 
Reported by

Snappy Kraken, a MarTech company focused on helping financial professionals do “modern marketing,” has released an automated newsletter outreach solution for financial advisers.

Snappy Kraken’s “Visual Market Insights” system, which is available as an ongoing paid subscription service, is described as a “complete revamp of the standard email newsletter marketing system.”

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“Rather than bland email newsletters with boilerplate facts, figures, and stock data, the Snappy Kraken communications are fresh, highly visual, and encourage sharing across multiple channels,” the firm suggests. “Visual Market Insights includes infographics, landing pages, and social media promotions that help financial professionals get the word out.”

To increase the “shareability,” each Visual Market Insight mailing is tied to a larger campaign “meant to dazzle clients and prospects while informing them quickly.” Each communication is paired with a related, standalone web page. “This serves as another source of traffic, readership, and email list growth for financial professionals,” the firm says, “while also making it easy for people to link to or share the content via social media.”

In addition to helping firms stay in touch with existing clients, Snappy Kraken says Visual Market Insights is “also a great prospecting tool.”

“Each landing page contains a call-to-action asking the reader to subscribe and thus never miss an update,” the firm says. “Each email/infographic/landing page combination is part of a timely, eye-catching campaign that will inform readers, make them smarter, and demystify the facts behind sensational headlines.”

The initial three Visual Market Insights campaigns, which are available now, cover the effects of President Trump’s tweets on the market; the reasons behind the Fed’s rate hikes; and top threats to running out of money in retirement.

Advisers interested in securing a 60-day free trial are encouraged to submit their name and basic contact information via www.SnappyKraken.com/visual. 

Data & Research April 27, 2017

Working With an Adviser Doubles Sense of Retirement Security

Forty-three percent of pre-retirees who work with an adviser feel well prepared for retirement, compared to 21% who have no adviser.
Reported by

Having a financial adviser certainly benefits people working towards the goal of retirement, the LIMRA Secure Retirement Institute found in a survey. Forty-three percent of pre-retirees, those between the ages of 50 and 75, who have an adviser feel secure about their future retirement, compared to 21% of pre-retirees without an adviser.

Asked why they have turned to an adviser, 43% of people said it was to minimize the risk of running out of money in retirement, followed by protecting their portfolio (32%), minimizing taxes (27%), helping them establish a realistic budget for their retirement (26%) and maintaining perspective (25%).

Sixty-seven percent of those who have an adviser and a formal written retirement plan say they feel confident about retirement, compared to 34% of those without a written plan.

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The survey also found that only 27% of pre-retires have tried to figure out how to generate retirement income, and only 31% have attempted to figure out how long their savings will last. Twenty percent have not completed any retirement planning activities.

“Our research demonstrates the value of working with an adviser and having a retirement income plan,” says Jafor Iqbal, assistant vice president at the LIMRA Secure Retirement Institute. “In an environment with greater emphasis on [putting the] client interest first and transparency, advisers need to shift their focus to providing retirement planning activities, which will validate their product recommendations.”

The findings are based on an online survey of 1,050 adults between the ages of 50 and 75.

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