Kurtosys takes its place alongside global technology leaders Thomson Reuters, Advent Software and TD Wealth Institutional who were also given the GoodAccredited Standard, having successfully cleared a stringent assessment process, which included client feedback scores. This standard is the only independent accreditation for service and system providers to the regulated financial services sector.

Kurtosys will now compete for a Systems in The City Award, having received nominations for:

• Best Clearing / Outsourcing Service for its Fund Factsheets
• Best Client Reporting Solution for its Client Reporting tools and Secure Reporting Portals.

Kurtosys provides beautiful software to help asset managers all over the world meet and exceed client expectations in reporting, fund factsheets, secure portals and interactive tools.

Having already been named in the FinTech Top 50 as one of the leading European firms redefining financial services through technology, 2013 is proving to be another outstanding year at Kurtosys.

Mash Patel, CEO at Kurtosys said, “Kurtosys is built on the core concept of exceptional customer service – both in terms of the service our clients can expect and the outstanding experiences we help asset managers deliver to investors.  Being assigned the GoodAccreditation Standard recognises that hard work and means a great deal.”

Stephen Pinner, Goodacre UK’s MD added, “We have received a record number of applications for accreditation this year.  This emphasizes the increasing importance and integrity of the process.  The accreditation criteria is tough and not all firms pass the test.”

The post Kurtosys awarded GoodAccredited Standard, joining the ranks of global FinTech leaders appeared first on Kurtosys Blog.

If you knock the ‘T’ out of ‘IT’ and then substitute ‘Influence’ for ‘Information’ for the I, then, if you’re in IT, you’re actually in the business of influence.

Not our words, but the words of Eli Appel, Attenzi CEO.

Eli’s an interesting chap.

You see, he’s not real.

Rather, he’s the fictional character who wrote Attenzi:  A Social Business Story a new type of book for a new type of world by Philip Sheldrake, author of The Business of Influence: Reframing Marketing and PR for the Digital Age.

Instead of writing a conventional book and selling it on amazon, Sheldrake has posted his story – and I can’t recommend it highly enough – online, free for anyone to download and read.

It’s the story of how businesses become social, digital businesses.  Not brands who just spill out tweets and updates, but brands who listen to their clients, who get closer to customers and who end up producing the solutions that makes everyone’s world spin that little bit more happily.

Here’s Eli on IT – a sector I’ve watched change from the inside for decades – if the digital suppliers to the wealth management industry really internalized this, come to think of it if all wealth management providers of any type took this to heart, we could really start making a difference.

Well, you could look at two aspects of IT, the information, and the technology.  Sounds obvious right?”

Looking at technology first, the way I see it, the biggest change is the level of abstraction the IT departments in firms like ours deal with.

Back in the day, the technology was all about centralized computing power and spinning disk drives…

The the boxes we put on people’s desks were more powerful…

The the local network got more capable…

And then the wider Internet infrastructure got more capable…

And then the cloud emerged…

And so to information.

The words information and data are often used synonymously, yet incorrectly.  Data of itself is just discrete, objective facts.

We mere humans do not readily digest or understand data.  Rather, we deal in information; that is date made useful, made relevant.  A collection of data is not information – for that it also requires context and understanding.

How do you determine the value of the information and knowledge prior to the translation of data into information and knowledge?

Perhaps the best we can achieve then is simply to have a good guess at whether the potential information and knowledge we might unearth will make anyone act on it.

Or, perhaps, more precisely, will anyone change what they would have done otherwise.

So next time you’re in the market for an IT vendor or scoping the next brief for your wealth management website, ask yourself whether the tools you’re building and the data you’re making available to clients will change behavior.

If it does, if it starts helping clients make better investment decisions and grow their wealth then you won’t need to churn out spurious tweets, your client fan base will be telling the world for you.

The post Attenzi on IT: I is for influence appeared first on Kurtosys Blog.

“Every five seconds an Asia-based millionaire is online managing issues related to their financial wealth.”

 With the help of an in-depth HNW insight report covering Asia – FutureAdvisor Asia from Scorpio Partnership – we uncover exactly how much Asian investors rely on digital channels.

Digital gateways offer the fastest route to connect with Asian investors

Right now, the average Asian high net worth investor has a laptop or desktop plus at least two other digital devices and they spend large chunks of time using these devices to manage their wealth online.

Source:  The Future Advisor Report, Scorpio Partnership

As shown in the chart above, managing banking and investments is the single biggest reason that Asian millionaires go online.  Perhaps that’s not surprising given that these are individuals for whom wealth creation and management are significant issues but, nevertheless, the scale to which these HNW investors are choosing digital gateways as their means to access investment news, analysis and advice does underline the degree to which Asian clients are perhaps even more comfortable with digital channels than their cousins in North America and Europe.

These individuals typically yearn for knowledge – straddling all sorts of topics, but particularly when it comes to wealth creation and business.  In fact, providing Asian investors with the education and information they need to become ultra-well informed investors is a prime way to develop relationships and drive engagement.

“Moving forward, private clients are increasingly and actively seeking out financial institutions that demonstrate they have the capacity to get to know them well, advise them appropriately based on their expertise and knowledge and maintain a high level of client engagement or understanding as the relationship develops. Those institutions that do will get more business now and tomorrow.”

The most active surfers in Asia are also the wealthiest

Source:  The Future Advisor Report, Scorpio Partnership

As personal fortunes increase, so does the amount of time devoted to digital wealth management, with the most active surfers proving to be those with the most assets to invest.

Whilst global asset managers are scrambling to find new ways to engage with affluent investors, this group of clients is shouting its digital preferences loud and clear.  They like digital channels and they expect their wealth advisors to not only keep up, but to exceed expectations through imaginative use of digital channels, web based tools and interactive mobile apps.

The richest clients are already committing 30% of their digital lives to wealth matters so there is no conversion battle to win here.  These people want to visit your website, they want to interact with you digitally and grow their relationship (and wealth), but if they’re crying out for content, you have to make sure it is there when they come calling.

Digital serves a variety of needs

When asked what they are doing online, clients report using digital devices to carry out a fairly predictable set of activities:

• Financial research
• Monitor investments
• Execute investments
• General banking
• Evaluating financial news
• Interacting with advisors and institutions

So, digital behaviour mirrors the overall advice model

In fact, the actions these investors carry out online are virtually identical to the reasons they give for engaging with the wealth management sector overall.

Source:  The Future Advisor Report, Scorpio Partnership

Source:  The Future Advisor Report, Scorpio Partnership

It’s clear that Asian clients want to take the whole of the wealth management journey online.  They are keen users of financial apps and avid readers of financial news.

In short, these are people banking on stratospheric growth and they’ll seize every opportunity they can to learn more, consume more and engage more when it comes to wealth management.

But remember, Asia isn’t just one market, it’s many

It’s easy to think of Asia as one market—one new territory to be explored.

That view, however, is both naïve and incorrect.

Even when it comes to digital habits, there are variances by country and region.

Device preferences vary by country

Whilst wealthy investors in all five of the main Asian markets are moving towards an increasing reliance on tablets, BlackBerry remains an important connectivity tool for wealth management in Indonesia.

Tablet-based device usage is highest in China in Hong Kong with Singaporeans not far behind.  In all likelihood, Indonesia is headed in the same direction but, in the meantime, taking the time to understand how these markets differ – as well as learning the universal themes which they all share – is vital.

Source:  The Future Advisor Report, Scorpio Partnership

And mobile apps are most popular in China

When it comes to mobile apps, Chinese millionaires are the most enthusiastic, pushing China’s results some way ahead of those for the other Asian territories.

Source:  The Future Advisor Report, Scorpio Partnership

Across all markets, thought, HNW individuals were clear that they would like more mobile capability if only the online apps existed to meet their needs.

So Asian clients are digital natives… what about their wealth advisors

The charts above make a pretty compelling case for a digital approach to wealth management in Asia, but how are wealth managers squaring up to the challenge?

Next time, we’ll look at the views of current wealth professionals serving the Asian markets and compare their views and opinions with those of the investors they serve.

The post Feeding the digital dragon – Asian investors’ love affair with digital wealth management appeared first on Kurtosys Blog.

Role: ETL Development Engineer
Reports to: the Principle Database Development Engineer
Team: Engineering Group (a multi disciplined team of software and systems developers)
Location: London

Kurtosys requires an ETL Development Engineer to manage various standard processes related data loading and manipulation as well as Talend software installations, licensing and upgrades.

Responsibilities 

This job will include the following specific functions:

• Managing Talend Administration Console installations
• Coordinating Talend licensing and technical discussions with the  vendor
• Providing internal advise and assistance with the use of Talend products and creation of jobs
• Developing ETL standards and practices for our data loading operations
• Assisting our implementation teams in their work to onboard customer data
• Coordinating and managing the daily processes for loading “market data” supplied by 3rd parties such as Lipper and MorningStar
• Working with the network and infrastructure team on landing processes for data files via sFTP and web services connections

Skills 

The ideal candidate will have experience working with:

• Talend Data Quality and, in particular, Administration Console products
• Financial data, specifically related to asset management
• ETL processes
• Various database servers and administration tools, particularly SQLServer and MySQL
• Programming languages, particularly Java

The candidate will also have had 2-5 years of working in a role related to data management and database operations.

If you feel your skills meet the requirements of the ETL Development Engineer and you’d like to be considered for the position, apply today: Email Mary Nayegon mary.nayegon@kurtosys.com with a covering letter detailing why you are suitable for the role and your CV.

Salary dependent on skills and experience. NO recruitment agencies or overseas companies please.

_____________

Kurtosys is a global provider of digital technology to the financial sector.

We believe we have an exciting and vibrant working environment and provide an excellent basis for developing careers in IT.

Kurtosys are an equal opportunities employer. Therefore we treat all workers and job applicants equally. There will be no discrimination in respect of marital status, gender, sexuality, disability, age, colour, race, religion or belief (or lack of belief), nationality, ethnic or national origins. There will be no discrimination on these grounds in the terms and conditions offered to workers or job applicants.

The post We’re Hiring! ETL Development Engineer – London Based appeared first on Kurtosys Blog.

200% growth in centa-millionaires forecast for South & Central Asia

There are probably not too many people queuing up to ask why Asia is an important region for global asset managers, but perhaps the scale of that importance is best summed up in the following image which tracks the growth in the number of centa-millionaires (aka hectomillionaires) by region:

Source: The Wealth Report

Between 2011 and 2016, North America’s centa-millionaire population is set to grow by 24%. While that’s not insignificant – after all between 2006 and 2011 Western Europe saw a 7% decrease in those with more than $100m of disposable assets – it’s tempting to see it as such when put next to either the 106% growth forecast for China or the 200% growth for South and Central Asia as a whole.

By 2020, China is expected to overtake the US as the world’s largest economy – before making way for India in 2050…

Put simply, Asia has – and will continue to have – more HNW individuals than anywhere else.

Asian investors are hungry for growth

According to Scorpio Partnership – who went to Asia to study UHNW Asian investors and their advisors in detail – Asian investors aim to increase their wealth, on average, 3.7 times within 12 years. What’s more, they’re pretty confident (60% confident in fact) of achieving it.

Cracking Asia is a pretty tall order

With all that wealth to play for, it’s no surprise that Asia is top of many global asset managers hit lists when it comes to growth and expansion but cracking Asia is likely to present a whole new scale of challenge for the fund marketing departments asked to open the dialogue with UHNW Asian investors.

Over the course of our Asian investors series, we’ll be exploring:

• Feeding the digital dragon – why Asian investors not only like, but demand, digital relationships… and why what we think of as digital might not measure up.

• The advisor perspective – drawing on primary research (undertaken for Scorpio Partnership’s FutureAdvisor Asia study into UHNW engagement), we’ll be investigating the views and opinions of the wealth professionals already on the ground in Asia.

• Why Asia isn’t just one new market, but many – With huge cities the size of European countries popping up in China at a ferocious pace, marketing to Chinese investors, let alone Asian one, en-masse is a mistake

• Why digital on-demand marketing relies on the marriage of technology, data and consumer insight

But first, let’s take some inspiration from beyond financial services.

This is Tesco, but not as you know it. Faced with stiff competition for its Korean brand, HomePlus, Tesco decided to go upwardly mobile.

This branch of Tesco – or rather HomePlus as it’s actually called – is on the South Korean subway line in Seoul.

In this virtual store, customers are picking up their shopping on their way home from work but instead of battling home with stuffed grocery bags they’re simply scanning items into the smartphones and ordering a delivery to arrive at their doorstep.

Virtual HomePlus stores helped Tesco rise to the no. 1 spot in online retailing and a close 2^nd place offline, despite the fact that it had many less actual stores than their closest rival.

The story unfolds in this video

The results speak for themselves:

Smartphone shopping increased:

• New registered users on their online site grew by 76%
• Online sales rose by 130%

So what are the take-homes from HomePlus?

It’s tempting to write this off as an example of a global giant flexing its might, but actually, the success story of HomePlus contains some useful pointers for any global brand – and that includes Financial Service providers – hoping to succeed in Asia.

 1. They leveraged Asia’s digital love affair

Most brands know at least notionally that Asian consumers are big users of mobile and digital but HomePlus turned that insight into a financial advantage.

By leveraging the willingness of Korean customers to do business via mobile or online channels, they saved the huge investment costs associated with expanding their chain of “real” stores.

 2. They knew what they didn’t know… and found out

But although they started from a good knowledge base – after all, they already had stores in Korea and were doing OK – HomePlus knew that it needed to really get under the skin of what customers wanted.

They conducted an in-depth research study into the shopping habits of Koreans and found that they dreaded the weekly shop. From there, finding a solution that would let them “shop on the go” was easy.

3. They created life solutions, not products

All along, they were designing for customers not machines. No doubt it’s easier to rely on websites rather than post up virtual display boards along subway routes but HomePlus took the time to understand that customers liked being able to “see” the products rather than search for them online.

They combined all of the benefits of real shopping with the ease of digital and they built it into exactly the parts of their customers’ lives where they had time to use the solution – whilst waiting for the subway.

Financial technology has to be centered around customers too. Not the regulators nor even the products but the clients, first and foremost.

For too long, regulation and compliance has been used as an excuse not to leverage digital channels when it comes to financial brands but that excuse won’t hold water in Asia.

Seb Dovey, Managing Partner of Scorpio Partnership and Asia expert agrees,

“By concentrating on what can’t be done, brands are missing huge opportunities to connect with clients and attract and retain assets. Digital technology is the key to unlocking the prize in Asia but it has to be done carefully. Brands need to understand what customers want, understand how they use digital and then find the right technology partners to build a digital financial future.”

The post Asia: The rise of millionaires… and virtual subway shops appeared first on Kurtosys Blog.

But Asian investors are also digital natives.  Wealth managers predict that within five years the dominant tools for the delivery of financial services to HNW investors will be iPad and tablets – whether that’s for on-boarding, portfolio analysis, pitches, relationship management or investment research.

But cracking the digital dragon of China is no mean feat.

Over a series of blog posts, we’ll be examining what makes China’s digital landscape different; looking at the unique needs of Asian investors – and their advisors – and considering what it will take to build successful wealth propositions in Asia.

But first, here’s 11 pictures to bring home the scale of the digital dragon.

 Source: WeAreSocial SG

Netizens are people actively involved in online communities and the internet.

You might say web surfers but in China, they’re mostly called netizens and there are a whopping 600 million of them, plucked from the heart of 1 billion Chinese social media users.

That figure is strikingly similar to the 618 million daily users accessing Facebook as at December 2012…

Source: WeAreSocial SG

but of course there’s a firewall in place to stop Chinese netizens creating a FB profile, isn’t there?

Well, in theory…

In reality, it’s common knowledge that a vast number of urban Chinese circumvent the Chinese firewall to consume Western media and access Western social networks like Twitter and Facebook; but while they are keen to keep tabs on what we’re up to, most find their true digital home on one or more of China’s homegrown social networks.

For whilst the firewall hasn’t exactly succeeded in keeping the West out, it has prompted a wave of innovation that’s created a huge array of Chinese social networks which ape – and often exceed – the functionality that we in the West recognise.

But whilst we might recognise the functionality, the networks remain largely unknown outside Asia.

See how many names you recognise from amongst the top six Chinese social networks:

Source: go-globe.com

In the West, social networking has gravitated towards the big players – the likes of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn who grab the lion’s share of attention.

In China, things can seem a little more diverse, and a little bit more complicated:

Source: Seeisee.com

Which is a daunting prospect for global financial brands hoping to crack China.

Source: China – Will it Redefine Our Digital Landscape  (SXSW Presentation by Freddie Laker)

By 2015, the majority of content on the internet will be Chinese.

Chinese social networks – and websites – are rapidly creating a whole new type of competition

Source: China – Will it Redefine Our Digital Landscape  (SXSW Presentation by Freddie Laker)

That both looks – and is – alien to a Western mindset yet, getting left behind is not an option.

After all, China is already on the path to rapid private wealth creation

It’s citizens are already converted to the internet

Source: WeAreSocial SG

And are already using it to manage their financial affairs online

Source: WeAreSocial SG

In fact, digital is in their DNA.

And if you think that there are already a lot of Chinese web users… prepare yourself for many more to come!

Source: WeAreSocial SG

An untapped market of this size is a fantastic opportunity for global brands – especially those in the wealth industry – but understanding how to interact and service these clients is a massive challenge that should not be understimated.

Join us for the rest of our Asian adventure and get to know your future clients a little bit better.

The post China: The digital dragon in 11 images appeared first on Kurtosys Blog.

These days, 85% of tablet / smartphone owners use their device while watching TV[i] and the “box in the corner” increasingly looks like being relegated to “second screen” status.

But that doesn’t mean we’ve fallen out of love with video.  In fact, we like to consume even more visual media than ever before.  Teens have made YouTube first choice for music, helping it to overtake radio and CDs to become the most popular way for US youngsters to listen to music and the Google giant has also thrown down the gauntlet to traditional broadcasters by launching 60 broadcast channels of its own.

So how can mutual funds sell their wares on YouTube and tap into this growing appetite for visual stimulation?  We spent some time surfing the web to bring you 13 ways to take your fund marketing campaign online via YouTube.

The post 13 ways to sell mutual funds on YouTube appeared first on Kurtosys Blog.

The list of reasons not to use social media for fund marketing used to go something like this…

Compliance concerns

And do clients really want it, anyway?

Fear of the regulators

And does it really drive results?

Worry over controls and safeguards

But we don’t know what to do…

For some time, now, those financial advisors and fund marketers who have found the courage to crawl out from under their comfort blankets have been met with an ever more compelling case stating the benefits of using social media to attract, engage and retain investors’ assets.

Gen D are digital natives, including their FAs

Whether it’s a story about Generation D (Gen D), Accenture’s name for the growing swell of US investors who have deeply ingrained digital and social channels in almost every aspect of their lives[i] – and unsurprisingly see no reason why things should be different when it comes to managing their investments – or the 74% of FAs who say that using social media helps them to increase assets under management[ii], research and experience bear testament to the growing importance of social networking.

And so, the list of excuses reasons not to fully embrace social media gets suddenly shorter.

Tech-savvy investors hold 40% of global assets

Tech-savvy investors who are keen to see financial firms catch up with social media now represent 40% of global investable assets, a figure that will only grow as they age and inherit.  What’s more, 20% of them plan to change advisor during the next year, a ripe opportunity regardless of whether you’re an FA or a global asset manager.[iii]

Social networking shows strongest correlation with advisor pay

If you are a FA, you might also know that digital touchpoints make the biggest difference and have the strongest correlation to advisor fees.  Interacting with clients via social networks shows a 0.461 correlation with fee levels – compared to just 0.234 when it comes to a face to face meeting.[iv]

So, let’s revisit that list.

Compliance concerns

And do clients really want it, anyway?  YES!

Fear of the regulators

And does it really drive results?  YES!

Worry over controls and safeguards

But we don’t know what to do…

The regulators say…  Come on!

Which brings us to the thorny issue of regulation and compliance.

Whilst regulators can sometimes seem to discourage marketing full stop, their attitude to social media now seems open-minded, some might say distinctly positive, offering a timely wake up call to an industry which many commentators believe remains too conservative when it comes to embracing the digital revolution, after all:

• A significant amount of guidance material from regulators covering the use of social media already exists

• To date, regulators have been reasonable in their approach

• Even if C-suite decision makers don’t embrace social media, employees and clients on the ground might.  Since a firm remains liable, getting a robust social media strategy and execution framework in place is actually likely to help rather than hinder compliance.

• The FFIEC itself observes that social media has “the potential to improve market efficiency” and can “help users and providers find each other and match products and services to users’ needs.

Which makes Augie Ray’s argument that the industry has been overly cautious look like a sensible one.  The ex-Forrester analyst argues that the industry has been too cautious in its approach to social media, missing opportunities to benefit customers, as well as their own businesses.

New guidance from the SEC will help

The new “Guidance Update” from the SEC offers additional advice on the use of social media and provides more specific guidelines on what has to be reported to the Financial Industry Regulation Authority (FINRA) when it comes to communications and marketing via social media.

Essentially, the SEC have listed categories of information which do not need to be filed with the agency, a list which includes:

• Incidental mentions of an investment company that are not discussions on the merits of investment
• Incidental mentions of the word “performance”
• Sharing links to commentary
• A response to client social media inquiries that is based on factual information and doesn’t discuss investment merits

But don’t forget to archive

Although posting on social media sites may have just become a bit easier for asset management firms, remember that you’re still required to archive all published content in the event of a FINRA request.

And make sure whatever you do is part of an integrated – and fair – strategy for client communication

More social media means more thought will need to be given to how news and opinion is shared across various channels.  Both FAs and fund firms will need to plan for simultaneous multi-channel announcements.  If you don’t have the technology to announce news or share content via Twitter, your website, the press and your LinkedIn page within a reasonable time of each other you could fall foul of channel bias.

To sum up, proceed… but if not with caution, still with due care

To end, let’s return to that list.

Compliance concerns

And do clients really want it, anyway?  YES!

Fear of the regulators

And does it really drive results?  YES!

Worry over controls and safeguards

But we don’t know what to do…

As Augie Ray comments, if you “do not do anything in social media that you should not do in email, print, in person or on the web, you will find it difficult to run afoul of the regulators”, thus removing another set of reasons not to embrace social media.

So all that remains now is that small issue of deciding how to plan and implement a social media campaign and what controls and safeguards you need to have in place.

Watch out for more blog posts and a white paper, coming soon, to help persuade even the doubters who remain that social media can and does drive asset and revenue growth, and of course offer some tips on the road to success.

The post Green light on social media as SEC asks FinServ firms “what are you waiting for?” appeared first on Kurtosys Blog.

Every one who’s made a new year’s resolution… and broken it… knows that willpower only goes so far.

Losing weight, stopping smoking, working harder – all of these things are perfectly possible, they’re just hard to actually do.

Why?

Mainly because most of us find it very hard to take action now that will only benefit us later.  We all have two selves, a present self (focused on immediate gratification) and a future self (who wants to retire in comfort and be happy).

Many of the goals we set – and almost all of the investment goals we set – are about improving things for our future selves.  The trouble is, our present selves are only too keen to interfere and mess things up.

People try all sorts of things to help them stick to goals.  No matter what form they take, every one of them falls under the broad category of a “commitment device” as described by Daniel Goldstein, who studies the psychology of financial decision making.

Commitment devices are designed to “level the playing field” and make it easier for our present selves to act in the best interest of our future selves.

Unfortunately, they rarely work.

If you need convincing, take a look at these charts, taken from Goldstein’s TED talk:

Collectively, the world is saving less, even as the risk of retiring with insufficient income goes up – of course, that link’s not surprising given the inter-relation between the two.

Put simply, for every three baby-boomers, two will not be able to meet their retirement needs.

Why do we bury our heads in the sand?

Researchers at Northwestern University found that when people think about their future selves, the same brain region lights up as when they think about strangers.

So, there’s the problem.

According to Goldstein’s colleague, Hal Ersner-Hershfield, “saving for retirement may feel to the present self like giving money to a stranger in the future.”

The volunteers in whom the brain region was activated most showed the steepest discounting of the future – in other words, they were the least willing to do something today to benefit themselves tomorrow.  This psychological disconnection is manifested in an unwillingness to save or invest for the future.

What’s the solution?

Of course, understanding why clients might find it hard to set and stick to sensible investment goals is only one small step towards a solution.  How can fund marketers actually go about changing client mindsets?

The trick, according to Goldstein, Ersner-Hershfield et al is to start repairing the broken link between our two selves.

If clients find it hard to connect with the future, how can we build tools to help them?

One way of making the future self seem less like a stranger is to make it seem more like the present self…

Hal Ersner-Hershfield and his colleagues used age-progression software to show volunteers how they would look in thirty years time, the idea being that seeing yourself in the future helps to restore the connection between now and then.

The results were clear.  Participants who were shown their future selves more than doubled the amount of money they said they would allocate to retirement savings.

And in case you’re thinking that any old person will do, it won’t.  When volunteers saw images of other old people instead, there was no effect on their retirement allocation whatsoever; only getting in touch with your own future self can help you do the right thing apparently.

This idea of helping people to imagine their future selves by presenting them with a striking visual image of that self could be extended into a Behavioural Time Machine of the type discussed by the Allianz Global Investors Center for Behavioural Finance.

And it’s not just aged photos that help.  A second round of experiments added an emotional dimension by introducing happy or sad expressions to the faces.  Volunteers then linked the sliding emotional scale to a sliding financial scale, going from minimal allocation of savings for retirement to optimal allocation at the other end of the scale.

Seeing the emotional reaction of their future selves prompted participants to allocate significantly more to their retirement savings pool.

Applying it back to reality

Of course, building a behavioral time machine isn’t a realistic option for every asset manager, but there are some important lessons worth applying.

Sell outcomes rather than products

OK, you’ve heard it before, but this research is just further proof that clients respond best to financial marketing that’s focused on outcomes rather than products.

Every investor – be they private or institutional – is only investing their money because they want to create a certain outcome so why are so many fund websites still organized in long lists of fund names.

Letting clients select funds based on risk parameters, investment styles of asset class is a start…

But there’s room for improvement.

Could you visually show the impact that each selection has historically had on investment outcomes?

Should investors be able to see which selections investors like them typically make?

How easy is it to graphically illustrate the effect of tweaking one parameter?

Make it personal

Secondly, the research shows the absolute importance of giving your clients access to data that is personal and easily customized to suit their particular needs.

Remember those volunteers who were shown pictures of other old people – it had zero impact.

Similarly, personal watchlists are far more engaging than a one size fits all approach and graphs of fund performance are far more powerful once they become interactive.

The present vs. future selves of marketing

And what about marketing itself?  Fund marketing is undergoing a seismic shift.

We’re in the midst of a move from “old” to “new”.

Attracting and retaining investors’ assets now relies on creating ongoing engagement, on empowering customer control and providing personalized service.

Clients expect digital tools and 24/7 access to real-time reports.

Social networking is gradually replacing traditional communication and we’re hurtling towards an era in which old school advertising and PR simply fails to work.

Those who persist with yesterday’s tools are like the “present-self investors who can’t imagine themselves in the future.

It might be difficult to imagine the new world of fund marketing… but it won’t stop it happening.

The post Back to the future – Attracting asset with a Behavioural Time Machine appeared first on Kurtosys Blog.

Role: Business Analyst
Reports to: Implementation Manager
Location:  New York office with travel to client locations within the US. Some international travel may be required.

Kurtosys requires a Business Analyst to assist in the implementation of new services and upgrades to existing services.

Responsibilities 

• Gather and understand all client requirements during the initial phase of the project, and continue to support the Implementation team for the duration of the project.
• Produce key documents, including Project Initiation Document, Detailed Business Requirements and Gap Analysis as required.
• Work with the Implementation Manager and other BA’s to determine Test Plans, Training Schedules, and Project Plans, as well as with different areas of the company to ensure that Product functionality meets those requirements.

Core Skills

• Excellent verbal, written, and interpersonal communication skills, ability to present effectively to large groups.
• Ability to draw out, document and understand detailed requirements through interaction with clients, often at a senior level, with an exceptional attention to detail.
• Ability to work under pressure.
• Strong Microsoft Office skills, including Project.
• Bachelor’s degree in a related field, 3.2+ GPA (or equivalent).
• Drive for self-development and a desire to be an active participant in the growth of Kurtosys.

Desirable Skills

• Experience working on multiple project streams concurrently.
• Development background with the ability to understand technical issues and communicate directly with development team members internally and at the client.
• Asset Management industry experience including market data.

If you feel your skills meet the requirements of the Business Analyst and you’d like to be considered for the position, apply today: Email Mary Nayegon mary.nayegon@kurtosys.com with a covering letter detailing why you are suitable for the role and your résumé.

Salary dependent on skills and experience. NO recruitment agencies or overseas companies please.

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Kurtosys is a global provider of digital technology to the financial sector.

We believe we have an exciting and vibrant working environment and provide an excellent basis for developing careers in IT.

Kurtosys are an equal opportunities employer. Therefore we treat all workers and job applicants equally. There will be no discrimination in respect of marital status, gender, sexuality, disability, age, colour, race, religion or belief (or lack of belief), nationality, ethnic or national origins. There will be no discrimination on these grounds in the terms and conditions offered to workers or job applicants.

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