Cogent Reports, a division of Market Strategies International, asked 1,390 registered financial advisors to select which mutual fund companies they trust out of a list of 48. The study found that "trust" in an asset manager had the greatest impact on their willingess to invest with them, even more than reliability, consistency of performance or information and guidance. American Funds was the most trusted among brokers, while bank-based advisors gave the top nod to Franklin Templeton and RIAs were most inclined to trust Vanguard.
When it comes to short-term stock movements, a new study has confirmed Twitter is a reliable predictor. Researchers for the European Central Bank crunched over 310,000 tweets between 2010 and 2012 containing the words “bullish” or “bearish.” Their findings show that was a better predictive tool for the stock market than Google. "Twitter bullishness has a statistically and economically significant predictive value in respect of share prices in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada," the study said. The study clarifies that long-term predictions don’t work as well on Twitter, but that the social platform does have noticeable predictive powers during “extreme market conditions.”
Schwab Signs Three-Year Extension With Fiserv
Charles Schwab announced Thursday that it signed a three-year extension with its long-time technology partner, Fiserv, to provide Schwab with portfolio management, accounting, trading and model-portfolio capabilities within its Unified Wealth Platform product. Fiserv currently supports 190,000 accounts for Schwab, representing $42 billion in assets under management.
How often do you talk to your clients? Via regular phone calls? Social media? In person? More likely than not, it's a they-call-you-when-they-need-you type of situation. U.S. News and World Report has a list of 10 times they should be calling, and it might be worth giving the article to your clients as a reminder to check in if they buy a vacation home, get a big raise, get married, graduate, relocate, inherit money, have a new child, get a job, get a severance or retire.
