In Practice May 28, 2008

Money Talks

Clients want more than numbers from their advisers.
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A recent study by the Financial Planning Association confirms that adviser communication is significantly important to client trust and retention. That does not just mean spouting off technical talk, but also knowing and relating to clients.

In “Research: Communication Issues in Life Planning,” authors Anderson and Sharpe surveyed FPA members and their clients. According to the study, clients who strongly agreed with the statement “I feel that my financial planner really tries to understand what I want in the financial planner-client relationship” were:

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  • more likely to strongly agree that they have no interest in transferring to a different planner;
  • more likely to indicate that they were very satisfied with the relationship they have with their financial planners;
  • more likely to strongly agree that they frequently recommend their financial planners to others.

The authors found that weaving qualitative and quantitative discussions together is most effective in financial planning conversations. “Client communication that is focused solely on collecting financial data or on delivering financial advice is no longer enough to sustain a competitive advantage,” the report says.

The study concludes that empathetic planners are valued by clients, who appreciate advisers who make an effort to truly know them and their financial lives. In fact, the study recommends more advisers seek out classes to help interpersonal skills—which aren’t taught in financial planning courses.

Information on purchasing “Research: Communication Issues in Life Planning” is available at www.ShopFPA.org.

Products May 28, 2008

NRP Offers Customized SalesForce CRM System

National Retirement Partners (NRP) linked with SalesForce.com to develop a customized client relationship management solution (CRM).
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National Retirement Partners, Inc. has partnered with SalesForce.com to offer the solution, enabling advisers to manage their office and every aspect of the customer lifecycle, according to a press release.

The system is designed to be a central location for advisers, organized as they choose. The features on the NRP CRM system include unlimited document storage; weekly commissions at a glance per client; live fund research; investment analytics integration; fiduciary document storage and retrieval system; and profitability analytics on a per client basis.

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Using the Enterprise version of salesforce.com, which allows for the integration of outside data fields, NRP says it has created a one-stop tool for virtually all client servicing needs—from plan benchmarking, investment due diligence, fiduciary monitoring, and client profitably analysis to the most basic client scheduling activities.

The release of the NRP CRM application on the SalesForce.com platform comes after more than a year of research and development, the company said. The system has been in extensive use over the past several months by a few NRP Member Firms across the country who provided their ideas and input regarding features and functionality for the system.

NRP Member firm Pensionmark Retirement Group was one of the initial firms to test the new system. “The major advantage is that the NRP CRM solution is customized specifically to the needs of the pension-focused adviser,’ said Troy Hammond, Pensionmark CEO and President, in the release. “Being able to integrate the investments and commissions into the CRM system is huge for us. The advisers who are going to thrive in the retirement plan industry will have to deliver a high level of service extremely efficiently. “

The NRP plans to enhance the system by allowing advisers’ clients the access to extract documents on demand. Further enhancements and features are continually in development and based on the input from NRP application users, the company says.


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