Products October 9, 2020

Advisor Group Adds Digital Marketing Tools to Platform

The new capabilities include artificial intelligence and personalized video content.

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Advisor Group has expanded its adviser marketing platform, MyCMO, with new and enhanced digital marketing and virtual brand-building tools. These new capabilities include artificial intelligence (AI), personalized video content and many other features that advisers can deliver digitally in this age of COVID-19.

The AI is delivered via Curator, which uses artificial intelligence to scour the Internet for articles from reputable sources such as Forbes, CNN, MarketWatch and Bloomberg to ensure that advisers send their clients quality content. The platform also uses GIFs [graphic interchange formats], attachments and links within emails for advisers to send personalized videos.

Also included at no charge to advisers are data-driven, consultative marketing guidance and recommendations from Advisor Group’s marketing strategists.

Advisor Group began testing these new tools among a small adviser pilot group earlier this year, and members of this group report significant business growth, the company says.

“The power of a strong marketing plan that integrates activities across all marketing channels—from web and email to social and print—cannot be overstated, especially now that virtual client engagement and acquisition has largely replaced traditional in-person touchpoints,” says Susan Theder, chief marketing officer at the company. “Our enhanced MyCMO platform leverages [our] proprietary content, the powerful technology of the FMG Suite platform and the knowledge and experience of our internal team of expert marketing strategists, making it easy for financial professionals to create and execute a sophisticated, integrated marketing plan that is customized, authentic and measurable in results.”

Deals & People October 8, 2020

Morgan Stanley’s Eaton Vance Acquisition Makes Waves

The move to acquire Eaton Vance, a provider of investment strategies and wealth management solutions, underscores Morgan Stanley’s goal to create a holistic advisory, investment management and brokerage shop.

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Morgan Stanley and Eaton Vance Corp. announced Thursday that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Morgan Stanley will acquire Eaton Vance.

Eaton Vance is a well-established provider of investment strategies and wealth management solutions, boasting more than $500 billion in assets under management (AUM). The deal has a reported equity value of approximately $7 billion.

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According to the firm’s leadership, the acquisition advances Morgan Stanley’s strategic transformation with “three world-class businesses of scale” across institutional securities, wealth management and investment management. After the deal, Morgan Stanley Investment Management (MSIM) will be an even more sizable asset manager with approximately $1.2 trillion of AUM and over $5 billion of combined revenues. The firms say MSIM and Eaton Vance are “highly complementary, with limited overlap in investment and distribution capabilities.”

Specifically, Eaton Vance is billed as a market leader in key secular growth areas, including in individual separate accounts and customized investment solutions delivered through its Parametric brand. Eaton Vance also delivers environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing capabilities through Calvert. As a provider of value-add fixed income solutions, Eaton Vance fills product gaps and delivers additional established scale to the MSIM franchise.

The combination will also enhance client opportunities, according to the firms, by bringing Eaton Vance’s U.S. retail distribution together with MSIM’s international distribution.

“Eaton Vance is a perfect fit for Morgan Stanley,” said James P. Gorman, chairman and chief executive officer of Morgan Stanley, during a conference call announcing the deal early Thursday. “This transaction further advances our strategic transformation by continuing to add more fee-based revenues to complement our world-class investment banking and institutional securities franchise. With the addition of Eaton Vance, Morgan Stanley will oversee $4.4 trillion of client assets and AUM across its wealth management and investment management segments.”

Under the terms of the merger agreement, Eaton Vance shareholders will receive $28.25 per share in cash and 0.5833x of Morgan Stanley common stock, representing a total consideration of approximately $56.50 per share. Based on the $56.50 per share, the aggregate consideration paid to holders of Eaton Vance’s common stock will consist of approximately 50% cash and 50% Morgan Stanley common stock. The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions, and is expected to close in the second quarter of 2021.

News of this major acquisition comes about eight months after Morgan Stanley grabbed headlines by announcing its intention to acquire E*TRADE in an all-stock transaction valued at approximately $13 billion. That announcement came on the heels of a record 2019 and a busy beginning to 2020 for financial services industry merger and acquisition (M&A) activity. Several important registered investment adviser (RIA)-focused transactions have also played out this year, while the biggest 2020 M&A news (at least in terms of assets in motion) has been the acquisition of Legg Mason by Franklin Templeton—a move that will eventually create a combined $1.5 trillion firm. 

The acquisition efforts at Morgan Stanley, in particular, have prompted industry analysts to ask whether such traditionally high-end brokerage firms are seeing the appeal of being able to serve the middle and mass affluent markets—perhaps thanks to the outsized success of Fidelity and Charles Schwab in recent years.

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