Business Development Updates

07 January 2014

Social Media Trends - 2014

  Alterra, our Social Media partner has put together a brief document on likely trends in the social media world in 2014.

14 November 2013

The benefits of full underwriting

Just Retirement ran a highly popular Webinar for Adviser Home on full underwriting and the difference expert tele- underwriting ( from Morgan Ash ) can make to your client’s retirement incomes. If you were not able to make the Webinar worry not, you can catch up here with this video.

Research findings  

Just Retirement looked at the use of specialist telephone medical assessment service and asked some questions of those advisers who took part in the webinar. A large majority were unaware of the service, and a large majority were very positive about it. 

Have you ever used an external medical assessment service for annuities?*

Didn’t know it existed

239

76%

Have considered it and ruled it out

37

12%

Yes

38

12%

Total

314

100%

* Poll results from Just Retirement Limited webinars hosted on 8August and 7 November 2013 (292 and 22 responses respectively, total responses 314). 

Having heard from Morgan Ash, how useful do you think their service would be to you?**

Limited benefit

59

17%

No benefit

4

1%

Significant benefit

95

27%

Something to look at trying in the near future

190

55%

Total

348

100%

** Poll results from Just Retirement Limited webinars hosted on 8August and 7 November 2013 (326 and 22 responses respectively, total responses 348).

We draw all this to your attention because we believe there are important benefits to both you and your clients with a full underwriting process, and we know that using medically qualified staff to carry out tele- medical assessments can help your clients get the best result for their retirement income.

Check into our At Retirement zone here>>

 

12 November 2013

A Census of post RDR Adviser Incomes 2013

Download here>>

This is a really valuable piece of work from BWD – Adviser Home partners for professional qualifications and a leading specialist recruitment firm.

It covers adviser incomes pre and post RDR and looks at the way in which revenues are taken- fixed fees, fund percentage etc. It compares income levels between self employed and employed advisers, restricted and independent. Also included in the report is an analysis of the financial consequences of different levels of qualification.

The report will be of interest whether you are looking at your own earnings or whether you are concerned with recruitment.

We hope you find it useful.

More details on qualification support from BWD Development. View here>> BWD recruitment enquiries [email protected] 

31 October 2013

Webinar November

During the month of November we have arranged a series of Webinars, covering different subjects, but all designed to help you run, develop and market your business.  

Further details can be found here>>

If you are unable to attend any of these but would like more information then please let us know on [email protected]

Thanks

17 October 2013

Support for your Protection practice

Our recent survey of advisers’ requirements in the protection market showed a big demand for reasons why letters, model client approach letters and sales aids.

If you go to our Protection Zone you will find a lot there to help you build your business:

Infographics on client life stages from just starting out, building a family, right through to retirement eg – here’s one focussing on the issues around grown up kids For each stage there are sales aids, adviser check lists and a series of key stats For CI marketing there’s an excellent client mailer and a choice of sample client letters Sample client letter 1  Sample client letter 2 

There’s also some good case studies View Christian’s story   View Greg’s story  all designed to help you build this important market.

Part of what we are trying to do at Adviser Home is highlight where the best support can be found – we hope this helps.

For further support and your free supply of client mailers and DVDs, please speak to your Zurich consultant on 0500 546 546.

04 October 2013

Five guides, all useful, all at no cost

Defaqto produce an excellent range of material to help advisers with their due diligence on several issues. Here are links to just five recent publications:

Outsourcing investment: What advisers need to consider. View here>> A Guide to Unit Linked Guaranteed Products. View here>>  Risk Targeted Funds: Market Update 2013. View here>>  Investment Linked Annuities – Case Study. View here>>  Multi-Manager: Market Update 2013. View here>> 

25 September 2013

NEW - Guide to ETF's

(* this is quite a large file so may take a few moments to download)

The big trend in investments is the move to passive / ETF solutions. But Advisers can’t afford to be passive in their choice of ETF provider. This is a clear, comprehensive, readable guide to ETF’s from LYXOR ETF- Societe Generale Group. We think you will find it useful.

It covers the basic principles of ETF’s, the choices between physical and synthetic structures and the range of investment opportunities available. With almost EUR 30 billion. Lyxor is the third largest ETF provider in Europe, and the sixth globally.
 

If you would like to make contact with Lyxor call 0800 328 1199 and you can find out more details at www.sglistedproducts.co.uk including information on the “True Performance” of ETF’s.
 

Read more in the Lxyor Guide to ETFs - download above.
 

23 September 2013

Win an Amazon Kindle Fire

Just complete a few questions on the protection market – Click here>> and tell us what kinds of support would help you in that market. Then we will enter you for a prize draw to win an Amazon Kindle Fire, courtesy of Zurich. We will also let you have a summary of the findings. Would you complete the questions by the 27th September ? – thanks.   *Survey T&Cs  

09 September 2013

ER - Help your clients release more with....

Help your clients release more with Just Retirement's new Lump Sum Plus Lifetime Mortgage.

For more details - including support tools, a spotters guide, calculator and marketing support view here>>

09 September 2013

Advising your clients on their key retirement choices at retirement

As your clients approach retirement they are faced with some important decisions. The drawdown v annuity choice is one. To help with this, Selectapension have some excellent software and support packages. They also have experts on hand. To help you consider what support you may need to give your clients the advice they need, and provide you with the necessary audit trail, we have set up three Webinars with Selectapension.
 

In brief:
• Choice of dates for you – September 19th, 25th and 27th
• 10.30 am start
• Duration just 30 minutes
• Web based – take part wherever you are. No travel time!
• CPD certificate provided

To secure your place, please register with [email protected] and indicate your preferred choice of date.
 

29 August 2013

Download your free Social Media Content Calendar from Social Media experts - Alterra

Alterra have put together a simple to use template for mapping out content for sharing on blogs and social media platforms.

Feel free to DOWNLOAD your copy here

If you are planning your articles or white papers for the next few months then it's a good idea to turn the content into blogs and social media posts. So one piece of work can be shared in many different formats over several days and weeks. You will be able to pick out the salient points from the longer document and use as tweets or Facebook posts. On LinkedIn it is now possible to attach documents to updates.

Get in touch with Alterra if you would like to know how to create 300 social media actions from 1 document. Email [email protected]  

08 August 2013

Business Development Results

Survey Results - view here>>

We are committed to making sure that any event we are involved in genuinely makes a difference to advisers’ businesses. So, in our recent survey of adviser views we asked what subjects would be most of interest. The findings are available above.

The findings show huge interest in:

Finding and acquiring new clients Client seminars Lead Generation Social Media and PR

Meanwhile, consolidation attracts little interest – the emphasis is on growth, and especially new clients.

In terms of client needs there is major interest in:

Auto Enrolment Protection Model Portfolios Annuities

Do you agree? If you’d like to add some comment or you didn’t get chance to state your views last time then either complete the survey or let us know on [email protected]

01 August 2013

Does Social Media really work?

We asked our social media expert partner, Amanda Brown of Alterra to address the question, and here are her top ten reasons why social media should be part of your business life. We hope this helps you to consider the role of social media in your own business. If, however, you wish to go further and learn how to build and implement a social media strategy for your own business then either email amanda on [email protected] or book on her September course.     10 reasons for using Social Media for marketing your business   1. Social Proof The first reason for being involved in social media is that customers and consumers are using social media platforms to endorse or complain about  the products and services they buy. It's very easy to post a positive or negative comment on Twitter for instance. The concept of social proof is demonstrated clearly on websites such as Amazon where customer reviews are placed right alongside the description of the book software or other product you are considering purchasing.   2. Brand personality Given the widespread use of social media and the very personal nature of each platform, the people behind the brand become vitally important. Although most websites will have short profiles of each of key person in the business, there is usually very little personality evident. To use Ecademy's expression 'Know, Like and Trust', it is the people behind the company name or brand which is most important to new customers.   3. Building a sphere of influence We are all very well aware that recommendations and testimonials play a big part in gaining new clients. It's important that your wider audience are aware of your expertise in your particular field. Companies can build a sphere of influence around them by directly connecting with key influencers on social media. For example, financial journalists use Twitter as a way of finding news items. If you have a newsworthy announcement to make obviously the traditional PR route is one way of publicising it, but you could use Twitter to flag up to the journalist that your press release is about to go live.   4. Keeping up with the competition Before you embark on your social media strategy, we would advise that you take some time to look at the social media influence of your competitors. If your competitors are using social media to their advantage then you may well be missing out on internet exposure. Social media users, particularly those in the 20s and 30s, will have the expectation (rightly or wrongly) that all companies have a social media presence.   5. Your target audience is using it Over half the UK population is involved in one or more social media platforms. Whereas 15 years ago not all professional service firms had a website, it is highly unlikely that any business does not have a website. If your target audience is on a particular platform then shouldn't you claim that piece of internet real estate?   6. Google measures social sharing when ranking If you take a look at your Google analytics, not only can you see the traffic to your website from search referrals or as a result of someone putting your website address into their browser, but you can also see traffic from LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, Facebook and Pinterest. Google are increasingly weighting social sharing when ranking your website.   7. The next generation of word-of-mouth marketing This is somewhat akin to social proof. Social proof comes from the consumer themselves whereas we can use social media marketing to showcase our particular specialty. If this is then shared by others on social media our offering is validated, creating an online 'word-of-mouth endorsement.   8. Brand exposure The greater level of social media activity more likely it is that your brand will be memorable. This is not just about promoting your own services but also providing valuable content to your potential audience. Social is where people go to be sociable. There are exceptions to this: LinkedIn is all about business but we don't want to see just ads wrapped up in posts. A rounded personality interested in wider business issues is much more attractive than somebody who is a self-publicist.   9. Opens up conversations I don't know about you but I'm not a great fan of cold calling. Whilst we all have to do it some time in our careers, it's not the easiest of tasks. Many companies have efficient systems for fielding telephone calls which make it extremely difficult to, firstly, find the person you need to talk to and secondly, get through. Starting a relationship online helps take the cold out of cold calling.   10. Improves customer service The rise in the use of social media means that companies are open to complaints 24/7. Those companies who can handle complaints effectively will certainly mitigate the risks of bad comment.

21 July 2013

Supernote - fast easy notes and recordings to save you time and help with efficiency in your working week

Fresh Thinking -  A new service from Adviser Home covering new Apps, tools or just  fresh new ways of working to help your business. 

Here we look at Supernote - this short video is from Amanda Brown of Alterra - experts in social media marketing.  

14 July 2013

CardMunch - It's easy and smart

Fresh Thinking -  A new service from Adviser Home covering new Apps, tools or just  fresh new ways of working to help your business. 

Here we look at CardMunch - Take a picture with the app and a business card is converted to a contact automatically. It will also show you LinkedIn profile information and connections you have in common.

This short video is from Amanda Brown of Alterra - experts  in social media marketing.  

 

 

08 July 2013

Haiku Deck - the simple and fun new way to create stunning presentations

Fresh Thinking -  A new service from Adviser Home covering new Apps, tools or just  fresh new ways of working to help your business. 

Here we look at Haiku Deck - the simple and fun new way to create stunning presentations.

This short video is from Amanda Brown of Alterra - experts  in social media marketing.