Products May 16, 2008

Prudential Web Site Focuses On Women and Finance

Prudential Financial, Inc., launched a Web site designed to help women achieve financial security.
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The new Women & Money site offers advice from experts at Prudential as well as guest columnists, according to a press release from Prudential. In addition, interactive tools, calculators, and worksheets are available to help women analyze their financial situation and implement a plan to improve it.

Prudential’s recent study The Financial Experiences and Behaviors Among Women found 80% of women desire to achieve a secure retirement, but only 18% feel confident in their ability to do so (see Women Look to Advisers, Internet for Financial Information). Prudential said it launched the Women & Money site to help close the confidence gap.

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Women can submit their own personal stories on the Web site, as well as read those of peers, the release said.

The Women & Money Web site is at www.prudential.com/women.

Data & Research May 16, 2008

Advisers Are a Plugged In Bunch

Tech-savvy advisers might appreciate if asset management Web sites stepped up their game, according to a study by kasina asset management consultancy.
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The study What Advisers Do Online found that the vast majority of advisers are comfortable executing routine transactions online, capable of navigating Web 2.0 technologies, and routinely using the Web for both information and entertainment.

In the study, kasina asked over 500 advisers across all age groups and channels about their online habits and preferences. According to the survey, few advisers are satisfied with the usability of asset manager Web sites. Only 33% felt it was easy to find information on asset manager sites, and only 31% agreed that asset manager homepages are well designed.

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As the study indicates, the Web is becoming an increasingly important part of the asset manager-adviser relationship, kasina said. It might also be increasingly important to the adviser-investor relationship (see Investors Turn to the Web for Answers).

The kasina study also revealed that advisers regularly use advanced online technologies on non-industry Web sites. YouTube is surprisingly popular among all advisers, with 78% of advisers ages 20 to 40, 61% of advisers ages 41 to 60, and 34% of advisers ages 61 to 80, visiting the site. RSS feeds and podcasts are also popular with advisers of virtually all ages.

The report sample highlights a few Web sites popular with advisers: Google, Yahoo! Finance, Wikipedia, wsj.com, and Morningstar.

To order the report, visit www.kasina.com.


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