Welcome to our asset management marketing roundup
Asset managers are increasingly looking to embrace digital, offering innovative ways to engage with investors who are looking to trust those that are up to speed. From marketing funds on new look websites and social media accounts, to video marketing and written blogs, we here at Kurtosys scour the web to find the very best industry-specific examples of fund marketing and industry movers and shakers to save you the hard work.
This week’s round up brings you the latest industry movers, MiFID II’s rivals, thoughts on robo-advisors and a financial-themed Halloween.
(AMMF #13 AND the fact that it’s almost Halloween? What a coincidence. Brace yourselves for some All Hallow’s Eve-related references, just as a minor warning.)
Movers & Shakers
Klare Iveson
Is now ➜ Consultant – Digital Investing at Santander UK
Was: Head of Marketing Transformation at Zurich Insurance Company Ltd
Charles de Lezardiere
Is now ➜ Principal at Mercer Investments
Was: Global Investments Solutions, Global Markets at Deutsche Bank
Katie Potter
Is now ➜ Vice President, Marketing Manager at BlackRock
Was: Marketing Manager at PineBridge Investments
James Shearring
Is now ➜ Digital Marketing and Communications Specialist at Impax Asset Management
Was: Digital Marketing Manager at Kames Capital
Kurtosys expresses their best wishes to all starting in their new positions.
Website Spotlight: PineBridge Investments
Far from a horror show every week is our spotlight on asset management websites. This week we have a succinct back-to-basics offering from PineBridge Investments which keeps it simple, and keeps it classy.
Its home page does well to contain all of its information into a short space. Like last week’s feature, this site doesn’t succumb to the trend of long-form pages, instead featuring an animated carousel of colour co-ordinated images for their market outlook and thought leadership pieces, as well as an informative video from their Chief Global Economist and a list of company news. Short and sweet, with no spooky surprises.
The top toolbar also keeps everything jargon free; headings including ‘Our Company’, ‘Insights’ and ‘Funds’ are bold and clear, and link to relevant sub pages in a user experience-friendly feature. It could benefit from being less manual, however.
To access the fund page, one must navigate through a few links, but these all assist in guiding the user to the most pertinent fund pages according to global area and investor type. To engage even more specifically with a fund, useful drop-down menus can be used by the most prepared investors, whereby their share class, ISINs and downloadable fact sheets become available in a segmented list. The fact sheets open in a new tab as mightily presentable PDFs containing a wide array of fund information.
There aren’t too many thrills, but there certainly aren’t many spills here either. Sometimes, simplicity is key. It is also fully responsive on mobile, which is another feature we endorse here at AMMF.
Fund in Focus: St James’s Place Japanese Fund
Gloucestershire-based St James’s Place Wealth Management already has a presence in China and Hong Kong and, riding high from year-to-date net inflows being up by 41% (to £6.7 billion), is planning to roll out a new Japanese fund.
Based in Tokyo, the fund will be managed by Nippon Value Investors’ Yoshihiko Ito. The additions to its fund range, also including a Global Growth fund, will aim to be effective from the 6th November and available to UK retail clients. This latter fund will comprise of the investment strategies of current managers Magellan, EdgePoint, Sands Capital and Select Equity Group.
The firm’s successful 2017 has seemed more like an everyday Christmas than Halloween, and it is clear this global expansion is looking to continue SJP’s diverse range of funds and portfolios for various investment needs.
Further information: International Adviser | Investment Week | City A.M.
MiFID II News
Dwelling on the effects of MiFID II has become of paramount importance to financial institutions throughout the year: the Día de los Muertos for them, as it were, being 3rd January 2018. But you all know that, I’m sure.
Instead of concentrating all efforts on MiFID II, there are further issues to be addressed, as has been made clear in this Waters Technology article citing a speech by Dr Kay Swinburne – Member of the European Parliament and vice chairman of the UK’s economic and monetary affairs committee.
In regards to financial data specifically, following the financial crisis (we’ll come back to that later), regulatory matters are getting pretty complex. The EU is becoming more “obsessed” with privacy and data transfers, and in that case the ever-increasing annoyance issue for the UK – Brexit – is now even more divisive.
On top of that, more data rules will have to be exercised given the introduction of GDPR, which Swinburne claims will probably be “just as disruptive to businesses as MiFID II”, and yet it is still seemingly waiting in the shadows.
Despite its introductory date of May 2018 being slightly further than the directive-in-question, it’s in the best interest for financial firms with a large number of data to make themselves compliant with GDPR before it vampirically returns to bite them in the neck. Asset managers: if you’d like to know more about GDPR, you can check out David Prosser’s pointers here on the Kurtosys blog.
Clearly, regulatory issues don’t just end with MiFID II; we’ll keep you posted on GDPR developments as they evolve.
Industry Insights
Considering the glaring need for investment commentaries, many asset managers aren’t seeing the clear benefits of providing transparent and timely data reports to their clients, instead seeing it as an “inconvenience”, as Copylab notes.
Luckily, the investment communications maestros at Copylab have selflessly produced a guide on how to maximise sales and protect AUM through the use of investment commentary. It’s a statistically-packed yet short(ish) document which can be downloaded FOR FREE at this landing page.
Whatsmore, it offers ideas on exactly how to save money for your investment writing needs. Not so much an inconvenience now, huh?
Forget about ghosts, witches and other such beasties, many asset managers are in fear of the robotic revolution. Robo-advisors are the digital nightmare for the wealth management sector, but instead FTAdviser has reported robots and humans making financial friends at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK.
The UK is famed for its allowance of fintech startups to use the regulatory sandbox principle; 
robo-advice services that have been operating under the sandbox (now having run for just over a year) have been tested by qualified advisors to make sure that their technological equivalents are delivering sound advice, as well as recommending or implementing necessary changes.
About 90% of the firms that finished testing from the first batch of sandbox hopefuls have already made steps towards a wider market launch. That’s a pretty satisfying result for the sandbox’s one year birthday.
Social Media Spotlight: MFS
Taking a look at MFS Investment Management’s Twitter page, it’s evident that they’re a financial institution with a wonderful grasp of video marketing.
Specifically focused on investment and market analysis, their videos are extremely professionally made. This example is part of their ‘Sector Spotlight’ series, focusing on retail this time, and shows a discussion between a portfolio manager and Equity Analyst Maile Clark who discusses “what sparked the retail (zombie) apocalypse…?”
What sparked the retail apocalypse & what does it mean for investors? MFS Equity Analyst Maile Clark talks about it here: pic.twitter.com/ruhoTQ0USU
— MFS (@followMFS) September 5, 2017
They also support charitable causes and promote them well, in typical MFS fashion (it seems) by using video, such as this feature about the company partaking in the annual Pan-Mass Challenge.
“I ride to find a cure for cancer.” Watch now to see what inspired our riders at this year’s cycling event: pic.twitter.com/SIZIoAMt88
— MFS (@followMFS) September 14, 2017
Finally, MFS advertise their own events through Twitter with effective marketing cards, including this ‘Your Time is an Asset’ discussion…
Tune in to our Facebook Live w/ @RedbookMag in 30 min to hear from women who took control of their financial future. https://t.co/Nvv4LzEs3F pic.twitter.com/Ezsd8Yx7GP
— MFS (@followMFS) September 13, 2017
…which was recorded as part of a Facebook Live event. For those that missed it, MFS embedded the final YouTube recording in their Twitter feed – killing three various social media platforms with one stone, essentially.
ICYMI – Watch our first event w/ @RedbookMag to hear from financial experts. For more info: https://t.co/vX7ia4t3qD https://t.co/9J02Hmr52d
— MFS (@followMFS) September 22, 2017
And finally…
Citywire Wealth Manager has kicked off a new series entitled ‘Diary of a digital investor’, and this edition features Selin Bucak testing out Weathsimple’s capabilities as a robo-advisor. Shining a light on the innovative tech (to see if they really are successful), this diary entry also recommends particular investments and notes such popular culture characters as Frodo Baggins and Don Draper; an entertaining and thoughtful read.
Did I mention it’s nearly Halloween? Digging up the grave of the 2008 crisis once again, here’s a fun article from Forbes outlining costume ideas to represent the ghosts of the financial past. I spent a while traipsing the web for Halloween-themed financial articles; this humorous gem certainly saved the day.
That’s all for this week, but be sure to check back soon for more asset management marketing highlights and fintech snippets from Kurtosys.
