Author: Anu Heda

Publishing Your Consultant Relations Teams

Posted by Anu Heda on Dec 30, 2015, in Thoughts , tagged with , , ,

A recent conversation with a client sparked me to look into consultant relations. And out of these six firms, I was surprised to see only JPMorgan puts faces and names for their consultant relations teams onto a public Web page. For this important constituency, I would consider making an inbound connection easier and more personable.

 Firm Consultant Relations Page # of People
T. Rowe Price Yes Unknown
Vanguard No Unknown
 AB  No Unknown
Wellington No Unknown
Northern Trust No No unified page
JPMorgan Yes 5 people

 

Is Custom Publishing Pertinent to Asset Management?

Posted by Anu Heda on Dec 28, 2015, in Thoughts , tagged with ,

As 2015 winds down, I’m thinking of interesting marketing initiatives seen this year. Custom publishing from AB came to mind. The above piece is from October and custom published through Pensions Expert in the UK. This effort succeeds on three levels. The piece:

  1. Introduces and/or strengthens the firm’s relationship with a magazine’s audience (U.K. Pension managers).

  2. Shows AB’s commitment and knowledge about U.K. retirement issues .

  3. Aligns AB with well-known industry experts such as AON Hewitt, adding credibility.

Is custom publishing right for every firm? It’s hard to say, yet if a goal is building relevancy in a new channel in a growth region, then this could be a solid technique to consider.

Best Blogs of the Week – #213

Posted by Anu Heda on Dec 28, 2015, in Best Blogs of the Week , tagged with ,

As the week wound down towards a Christmas Friday so too did the industry’s blog posts. We highlight two posts from last week.

BlackRock – What You Should Know About Convertible Bonds – To illustrate the comparison of a convertible bond’s price to its common stock price, we look at conversion parity, which is the value you would receive if converted to stocks today.

Peritus – High Yield Bonds: The Energy Dilemma – The concern about energy in the high yield market is appropriate for the index and products that track them as this is a large component of the indexes.

Best Blogs of the Week #212

Posted by Anu Heda on Dec 21, 2015, in Best Blogs of the Week , tagged with , , , ,

The investment management news is full of reactions to the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank’s FOMC rate increase. Below are five high-quality views and my opinion on why to read each.

BlackRock – Why the Fed’s Rate Increase is Good (Not Bad) News – Read because you’re seeking to understand how this rate and situation is different than previous ones.

Invesco – Fed hikes 25 basis points, signals gradual path – Read because you need succinct next steps for you and your clients’ portfolios.

Wells Fargo – How today’s Fed rate hike affects investors – Read because you’re most interested in a macroeconomic viewpoint.

WisdomTree – What happens When Interest Rates Rise? – Read because you want, no you need, the data

Vanguard – Don’t let rising rates get you down – Read because you’re an index investor that gets all the news on rising rates from Bloomberg, WSJ, NYTimes and want input on rates and bond portfolios

Best Blogs of the Week #211

Posted by Anu Heda on Dec 14, 2015, in Best Blogs of the Week , tagged with ,

Two posts stood out today as they both simplify concepts that can be opaque or difficult.

Putnam – Shedding Light on Alternatives – The four objectives that we have identified, like the efforts of rating agencies such as Morningstar and Lipper to define categories for comparative purposes, help to make the world of alternatives a little easier to navigate.

Vanguard – The Returns Roller Coaster –  Vanguard Investment Strategy Group performed a simulated analysis of similar hire/fire behavior using the universe of active funds.