New Book‚s Aim: Help Advisors Move Practices Online
A former vice president of industry research and intelligence for Securities America Financial Corp. has written a book to help financial advisors move their practices online.
Douglas H. Durrie, author of The Financial Planner‚s Guide to Moving Your Practice Online, has more than 20 years of experience in marketing and research and has developed Web-site strategies and coordinated Internet marketing and communications for Securities America companies. Securities America is a wholly owned subsidiary of American Express Financial Corp. and a sister company of American Express Financial Advisors.
The 256-page book, published in September by Bloomberg Press, includes chapters on finding great Web-site developers, prospecting for clients online, assessing the pros and cons of Internet advertising venues, creating an e-marketing campaign, effectively mining databases for information and staying on top of regulatory compliance issues. It also lists many Web sites that may be helpful to financial advisors.
The book is available in some bookstores and can be ordered through Amazon.com. More information on the book is available at www.movingyourpracticeonline.com.
Trust Company Formed
Premier Trust of Nevada Inc. has opened a new private trust company headquartered in Las Vegas, Nev.
Mark Dreschler, who has 28 years of experience as a trust executive, and Mark Mettelman and Robert Bruderman, principals of Triad Advisors Inc., organized the company and serve as its board of directors. In addition to providing traditional trust and wealth-management services, Premier offers Nevada‚s tax-favored status on a national basis. Financial advisors throughout the country have access to Premier‚s services while maintaining their client relationships and investment management. For information, contact Dreschler at (702) 507-0750.
SEI Introduces New Products
SEI Investments, based in Oaks, Pa., has introduced a Web site that provides advisors with practice-management tools, as well as software that measures portfolio performance and generates reports for advisors‚ clients.
SEIBusinessBuilder.com simplifies account administration, helps advisors manage client relationships and offers marketing and sales tools. SEI provides asset-management services to 3,500 registered investment advisory firms.
PerformanceStation, the company‚s new software, enables banks, money managers and advisors to provide sophisticated performance reports to their plan-sponsor, high-net-worth and other investment-account clients. For more information, call (610) 676-2042 or visit www.seic.com.
Firm Launches Funds
ProFunds of Bethesda, Md., has launched six unleveraged index-based mutual funds. They include Mid-Cap, Mid-Cap Value, Mid-Cap Growth, Small-Cap, Small-Cap Value and Small-Cap Growth ProFunds.
"These ProFunds are designed for active investors who want to take advantage of the historic divergence of value and growth segments of the market by overweighting their portfolios on either side of the small- or mid-cap equity market or the broader small- or mid-cap equity market," says Michael L. Sapir, chairman and CEO of ProFund Advisors LLC, investment advisor to ProFunds.
The company now offers 39 funds. Financial professionals who want more information may call (888) PRO-5717 or visit www.profunds.com.
Unbundled Variable Annuity
New England Financial, based in Boston, has introduced an unbundled variable-annuity product–the American Forerunner Series.
Clients may choose the features they want to include. Among them are a guaranteed-minimum-income benefit, which provides a fixed lifetime income, regardless of actual performance of the contract and can be exercised after a 10-year waiting period; an earnings-preservation benefit, which helps offset income taxes on the death benefit; and three death-benefit choices. For information on the American Forerunner Series annuity, contact New England Financial at (617) 578-2729 or visit www.nefn.com.
CheckFree Signs California Firms
CheckFree Investment Services of Jersey City, N.J., has signed on two California-based investment advisors–Capital Partners LLC of Pasadena and Legacy Planning Group Inc. in Redding–to use CheckFree APL-ASP. Adapted from the CheckFree APL platform used by large institutional money managers, CheckFree APL-ASP offers RIAs with up to $500 million in assets under management the ability to enter and maintain account data, manage trades, measure performance and generate client reporting. For more information on CheckFree, visit www.checkfree.com.