Bank Investment Consultant articles from May 2005

Bank Investment Consultant archives from May 2005

A Higher Calling.
May 1, 2005... From my conversations with bank brokers across the country, a compelling trend has become clear-transactional sales are on the way out; financial planning is the new face of the business. The difference? The former aims to sell product-any...

Small Banks Lead in Insurance Sales.
May 1, 2005... Banks-particularly the smallest ones-made waves in insurance sales last year, making up for lackluster brokerage sales. In 2004, banks earned a record $3.63 billion in insurance brokerage fee income compared to $2.97 billion the year before,...

SEC Split Clarifies B-Share Bugaboo.
May 1, 2005... The B-share saga continues, a recent judicial decision providing financial advisers with some additional clarification about when it's proper to sell different classes of mutual fund shares and how to go about selling them. In what law...

Bank Annuity Sales Still Weak.
May 1, 2005... Higher CD rates and the negative publicity from regulatory probes of variable annuity sales practices have converged to hamper bank annuity sales. Overall sales fell 7% in January-the third straight monthly decline-and were about 6% below the...

Product News.
May 1, 2005... AIG SunAmerica Retirement Markets has introduced the Seasons family of variable annuities. The family features four Managed Allocation Portfolios, which are subadvised by Ibbotson Associates. (800) 445-7862, or www.aigsunamerica.com ...

Tools and Resources.
May 1, 2005... Affinity Networking Systems has introduced a free Sales Prospecting Blog for advisers. It is updated daily with prospecting strategies, success stories, and tactical selling opportunities. prospectingprofaol.com, or www.prospectingprofessor.com...

Calendar.
May 1, 2005... May 9-11 ABA/Forward Financial Sales Management Conference American Bankers Association Memphis, Tenn. (800) BANKERS, or www.aba.com May 12-14 Financial Advisors Forum International Association of ...

The Queen of Queens: At HSBC, Esther Luk's community spirit feeds her business in a changing neighborhood.
May 1, 2005... Esther Luk is a permanent fixture both at her bank and in her community. That commitment is getting her results, not only with her existing clients, but with their friends and their children, too. While Luk doesn't see many big-ticket sales,...

Making the Most of Your Marketing: Without much marketing support, banks' investment subsidiaries are finding novel ways to work smarter.
May 1, 2005... Retail brokerage is still a relatively new business for many banks, whose customers are still wising up to the fact that they can buy the same products at their bank branch that they can at a traditional Wall Street firm. One reason is that the...

Creating a Sales "Dream Team": Department heads at Webster Bank form exclusive clubs of sales reps to maximize cross-sell.
May 1, 2005... While many banks these days are talking about cross-selling, few have formalized their efforts to the extent that Webster Bank has. Besides revamping the team-based structure of its retail investment subsidiary last year, senior officers from...

ILITs in the Stream: Irrevocable life insurance trusts are an important part of estate planning for high-net-worth clients.
May 1, 2005... Then it comes to estate planning, there is one powerful tool that should never be overlooked: the irrevocable life insurance trust, or ILIT. As Jeffrey Daniher, a partner at Ritter Daniher Financial Advisors in Cincinnati, says: "I believe the...

Shopping Around: For bank brokerage, changing clearing firms is a major undertaking. Why are so many banks making the move?
May 1, 2005... "I'd just as soon have someone take a two-by-four and beat me with it-it would hurt a lot less." That was John Porter's assessment of having to change clearing firms. Porter, former chairman and CEO of SouthTrust Securities (which is now part...

The Ripple Effect: You can avoid costly hiring mistakes by following a few basic rules of thumb.
May 1, 2005... Most sales managers find themselves in a constant search for new talent-that comes with the territory. Managers consistently rank recruiting among the greatest challenges they face, and that does not appear likely to change anytime soon. The...

Advertiser Index.
May 1, 2005... Allstate C3 Bank Insurance & Securities Association 33 Ed Slott 37 Hartford Life 5 Hartford Life Mutual Funds ...

Oh, Carolina!: North Carolina reps are busy expanding their fee-based products.
May 1, 2005... Bank Investment Consultant spoke with three Tarheel State denizens about their strategies to modernize bank brokerage in one of America's oldest states. Michael Bryant is a financial group manager and vice president of Southern Community...