Bank Investment Consultant articles from September 2007

Bank Investment Consultant archives from September 2007

Tipping Point.
September 1, 2007... Bank brokerage, meet brokerage banking. In August, Fidelity joined Charles Schwab and E*Trade in offering online checking accounts directly to compete with banks. All three firms are offering perks such as high interest on checking accounts...

Program Manager Pay Tops $400k.
September 1, 2007... Program managers at the megabanks broke the $400,000 compensation barrier last year, with an average salary plus bonus of $410,714 per annum, up from $388,125 in 2005, according to a new study by the Bank Insurance Market Research Group (BIMRG)...

The Looming Retirement Crisis.
September 1, 2007... More doom and gloom. An Aug. 1 report from the Center for Retirement Research (CRR) at Boston College says that as many as 45% of Americans won't be able to afford their current standard of living in retirement. That proportion has been rising...

Immediate Annuities: Retirement's Silver Bullet?
September 1, 2007... Investors who use immediate income annuities to fund their lifetime income in retirement would need as much as 40% more in assets to achieve the same riskless return through traditional products such as mutual funds, stocks and bonds, according...

The Baby Boomer Explosion Could Blow Up in Advisors' Faces: A telephone survey of 3,000 people by Country Insurance and Financial Services in Bloomington, Ill., found that... 43% ...of respondents considered saving for college more important than putting away money for retirement.
September 1, 2007... While the potential business is a powerful lure, advisors who plan to position themselves as retirement income experts are more likely to draw regulatory scrutiny and client lawsuits. "Our society is getting more litigious every day, and...

Big Fish, Small Ponds: Why bigger isn't better for super-producers at community banks.
September 1, 2007... You'd think that a highly productive advisor would want to work at a big urban bank where there are more clients to tap and resources to draw on. Instead, one elite group of $1 million-plus producers has purposely cast their lot in with...

Living the Life: How one advisor balances a big book of clients, an artistic bent and a desire to travel the world.
September 1, 2007... John Sedberry is a renaissance man: by day a buttoned-down financial advisor to the residents of California's Napa Valley. Outside of work hours, though, you'll find him sculpting or playing music-if he's not traveling the world and you can...

I Am Woman, Hear Me Roar: Women consumers have become a formidable market. Advisors should learn how to tap it.
September 1, 2007... Consider this: Sandra is a successful entrepreneur. She took over her family's business 15 years ago and successfully transformed a classic mom-and-pop operation into a major player in the Midwest, with new operations opening up in Canada and...

Girl Power.
September 1, 2007... * 90% of all wealth eventually ends up in the hands of women, whether they earn it themselves or inherit it from their husbands or parents. * 89% of women control the checkbook in their household. (WOW Facts) * According to...

Caring Ever After: How can you help advise clients to make estate plans for loved ones who have special needs?
September 1, 2007... Chekov remarked that happy families are all alike, but each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. As a banker, you are often privileged to learn more about a family than simply their balance sheet. This window into people's hopes and fears...

Risking Vital Benefits.
September 1, 2007... It's critical that you warn clients with special-needs loved ones not to give them money directly because they will probably no longer qualify for vital public assistance programs. * Advise clients that nothing can flow to the beneficiary...

Learning Curve: Why talking to clients about 529 college savings plans is worth the effort-if not the commissions.
September 1, 2007... Ask bank-based financial consultants about the role 529 education savings plans play in their clients' overall investment portfolios and the response is, to put it kindly, underwhelming. "Right now, 529s make up no more than 5% of our...

A Better Bet?
September 1, 2007... To be sure, 529s aren't always the best option for parents who are saving for college. According to Chad Klitzke, a financial consultant covering 15 banks for Green Bay, Wis.-based Associated Bancorp, sometimes steering a client away from a 529...

Bear Necessity: Prior preparation means advisors can do well even when the market isn't.
September 1, 2007... The signs are all there: A long and frustrating war; astronomical prices at the gas pumps; tensions with Iran; the end of the housing frenzy and the collapse of the subprime lending market; relatively low interest rates making many fixed income...

Wooing the Wealthy: Banks must now beef up their high-net-worth outreach to compete.
September 1, 2007... The recent era of record stock market performance should be a dream come true for banks selling investment products. After spending years beefing up their product lines and licensing staff, banks should be flexing their powerful branch networks...

Targeting the Tar Heel State.
September 1, 2007... BIC: What are the new opportunities in your territory? Greer: We're one of a handful of banks involved in health savings accounts, so that's an opportunity to talk to our commercial 401(k) clients about their plans and get in front of their...