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5 Steps to Building a Growth-Focused Marketing Budget

Every financial advisor has talked with clients about budgeting. It’s not about restrictions, you tell them. It’s about priorities. Your budget is a tool to declare what’s important to you and allocate your resources in a way that aligns with those prioritized values. The funny thing is that when it comes to marketing for growth, financial advisory firms, large and small, don’t always heed this advice. In fact, in an impromptu (and totally unscientific) LinkedIn poll I conducted last week, a whopping 57% didn’t have their marketing budget yet approved for the new year. If you want to grow your firm in 2024 — whether organically or through M&A — then you have to allocate your marketing budget to your growth goals. Even in many enterprise-level firms, marketing is often considered an expense rather than a growth driver. So it’s no surprise that most firm marketing budgets resemble a wish list for the year instead of a strategic, prioritized plan. If you’re still working through your marketing budget for 2024, here are five essential considerations to ensure that your spending is intentionally aligned with your business growth objectives. 1. Start with a clean slate. Unless you were 100% thrilled with your outcomes...

Stanley Mutual goes live with the Cognition+ Platform 0

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Stanley Mutual goes live with the Cognition+ Platform

London, ON (Nov. 24, 2023) – Stanley Mutual Insurance Company is pleased to announce they have successfully implemented the Cognition+ enterprise platform for their mutual insurance operations. Cognition+ provides Stanley with a full suite of integrated Underwriting, Claims and Accounting functionality in a Cloud environment.  The Cognition+ Cloud ensures a high availability, cost effective and secure solution while simplifying accessibility for all users. Cognition+ enables a myriad of opportunities for Stanley to extend their processes to other stakeholders beyond their current insurance operations and enhance workflow, rating, underwriting, and claims efficiencies. “We’re thrilled with the result of this project.  The collaboration between our team and the experts at Cognition+ made the transition to both a new system and the cloud a resounding success.  Through this project we’ve been able to streamline processes in all areas, bring our teams closer together through digital workflows, and ensure we have access to the data we need to run our business now, and into the future. Cognition+ has lived up to their promise of delivering within project timelines, and our team stepped up to lead this transition.  We are future-ready,” stated Greg Dunlap, President & CEO of Stanley Mutual Insurance Company. “It’s great to...

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Toyota’s Daihatsu Unit to Halt All Vehicle Shipments, in Widening Safety Scandal

Article 0 Comments Toyota Motor’s Daihatsu unit will halt shipments of all of its vehicles, Japan’s biggest automaker said on Wednesday, after a safety scandal investigation found issues involving 64 models, including almost two dozen sold under Toyota’s brand. An independent panel has been investigating Daihatsu after it said in April it had rigged side-collision safety tests carried out for 88,000 small cars, most of those sold as Toyotas. But the latest revelations suggest the scope of the scandal is far greater and went back much further than previously thought and could potentially tarnish the automakers’ reputation for quality and safety. Toyota-Subsidiary Daihatsu Rigged Safety Tests for 88,000 Cars Daihatsu is Toyota’s small-car unit and produces a number of the so-called “kei” smaller cars and trucks that are popular in Japan. The latest issues also impacted some Mazda 7261.T and Subaru 7270.T models sold in the domestic market and Toyota and Daihatsu models overseas, the panel found. Toyota said “fundamental reform” was needed to revitalize Daihatsu, as well as a review of certification operations. “This will be an extremely significant task that cannot be accomplished overnight,” Toyota said in a statement. “It will require not only a review of management...

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The Time to Buy a Fixed Indexed Annuity Is Now

What You Need to Know Rates are up. The regulations are strong. If rates fall, that could also be good. It is my obligation as a financial professional to offer clients the financial product and plan that best suits their unique situation. In many instances that plan can include a fixed indexed annuity (FIA), and it’s important that all financial professionals know something about them. Whether it is as a bond alternative, or a safe haven for an IRA, FIAs have grown in popularity. They are a fantastic tool for those who seek protection of principle, upside gain potential, and the ability to generate guaranteed lifetime income. So, why is now the best time to purchase an FIA? To answer that, we need to understand a bit more about how FIAs are constructed. What’s in an FIA? The indexed part of fixed indexed annuities is referring to market indexes that represent the performance of the stock market. To be clear, FIAs are not direct investments in the stock market. No, insurance companies primarily purchase a derivative investment, known as a call option, tracking a certain index. If the index goes up, the option is executed at the strike price and...

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Magnitude 6.2 Quake Kills More Than 100 in China’s Northwest

Article 0 Comments Chinese leader Xi Jinping called for efforts to minimize casualties after an impoverished region in the northwest was hit by an earthquake that left more than 100 people dead. The 6.2-magnitude quake late Monday killed 105 people in Gansu and 11 in neighboring Qinghai, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. About 400 people were injured, thousands of buildings collapsed and some infrastructure were damaged, according to state media. #UPDATE: Video captured the moment when a 6.2-magnitude earthquake shook Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture in NW China’s Gansu on Monday night. The quake can be felt in major cities like Xi’an and Chengdu. pic.twitter.com/CrDeQBbnyO— People’s Daily, China (@PDChina) Dec. 18, 2023 Xi said officials needed “to go all out to conduct search and rescue operations, treat the injured in a timely manner and minimize casualties,” Xinhua said. The earthquake occurred in Jishishan county in Gansu, which ranked 27th out of 31 Chinese provinces and municipalities in terms of GDP size in 2022. Rural Jishishan is some 90 kilometers (55 miles) southwest of Gansu’s capital of Lanzhou. Rescue operations may be complicated by the weather as northern China deals with a cold snap. Xinjiang, another northwestern region, was struck by...

5 Trends That Are Powering Advisor Growth 0

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5 Trends That Are Powering Advisor Growth

Start Slideshow Envestnet’s market intelligence team has identified key themes and trends that it says will power advisor growth and shape the financial advice industry in 2024 and beyond. The team analyzed market data, third-party research and a survey that the firm fielded earlier this year for a report that highlights the evolving landscape of financial advisory services and the increasing role of technology in the sector. “The wealth management market has long faced challenges with fragmented technology and inefficient workflows,” Chris Shutler, Envestnet’s head of strategic development and market intelligence, said in a statement. “To not only improve service delivery but also stay competitive, it’s crucial for firms and advisors to keep pace with these developments, addressing challenges through a holistic, integrated platform.” See the accompanying gallery for five trends that are reshaping financial advice, according to Envestnet. Start Slideshow

Insured losses from severe thunderstorms reach new all-time high of USD 60 billion in 2023: Swiss Re Institute 0

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Insured losses from severe thunderstorms reach new all-time high of USD 60 billion in 2023: Swiss Re Institute

High frequency of low single-digit billion-dollar events adds up to large insured losses that will exceed the USD 100-billion-threshold for fourth consecutive year With USD 6 billion of insured losses, the earthquake in Turkey and Syria was the costliest natural catastrophe year to date The re/insurance industry covered roughly 40% of the economic losses (USD 269 billion) this year, indicating a large protection gap across the world Armonk, NY (Dec. 14, 2023) – Natural catastrophes will once again break several loss records in 2023. A high number of low-to-medium-severity events will aggregate to insured losses of more than USD 100 billion in 2023, estimates Swiss Re Institute, with severe thunderstorms (severe convective storms, SCS) being the main contributor. It is the first time ever that severe thunderstorms have caused this level of loss for the industry. Jérôme Jean Haegeli, Swiss Re’s Group Chief Economist, says: “The cumulative effect of frequent, low-loss events, along with increasing property values and repair costs, has a big impact on an insurer’s profitability over a longer period. The high frequency of severe thunderstorms in 2023 has been an earnings’ test for the primary insurance industry.” Losses from severe thunderstorms have steadily increased by 7% annually...

AI adoption universal among financial services leaders, amid mixed signals of readiness: EY Survey 0

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AI adoption universal among financial services leaders, amid mixed signals of readiness: EY Survey

One in five are not confident that their organizations are well-positioned to take advantage of the potential benefits AI might bring Toronto, ON (Dec. 11, 2023) – Ernst & Young LLP has released the results of its 2023 Financial Services GenAI Survey: Nearly all (99%) of the financial services leaders surveyed reported that their organizations were deploying artificial intelligence (AI) in some manner, and all respondents said they are either already using, or planning to use, generative AI (GenAI) specifically within their organization. Amid these universal adoption plans, just over one in five respondents said they are nervous or skeptical about the potential impact of GenAI on their organization. That same percentage also does not feel confident that their organizations are well-positioned to take advantage of the potential benefits AI might bring. Insurance is ranked highest in the nervous or skeptical category (24%), while banking and capital markets leaders had the lowest levels of skepticism (17%), followed by wealth and asset management (21%). “While there’s a whole world of possibilities and efficiencies AI can create for financial services in areas ranging from data analysis to customer service optimization, blind optimism and hype around the technology can ultimately have a counterproductive...

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Lloyd’s Extends Lease on Iconic London Headquarters Until 2035

Article 0 Comments Society of Lloyd’s, better known as Lloyd’s of London, has reached an agreement to remain in its One Lime Street headquarters until at least 2035, the Financial Times reported. The deal with landlord Ping An Insurance Group, which came together on Friday, not only grants Lloyd’s an option to stay in the Richard Rogers-designed high-rise until 2040, but also involves a commitment to invest in reducing the Grade I-listed building’s energy footprint, the newspaper reported. Lloyds Chairman Bruce Carnegie-Brown emphasized the significance of face-to-face trading, highlighting the insurer’s underwriting room – a network of desks centered around the iconic Lutine Bell – as holding “a special place in our market’s collective consciousness,” according to the FT. The building is among those listed by Historic England, which cites its “boldly expressed services and flexibility of plan throughout the impressive exterior and interior.” Lloyds, with roots tracing back to a 17th-century London coffee shop, has called the distinctive building home since 1986. Yet the era of remote work during pandemic shutdowns and the rise of digital trading prompted discussions about potentially moving away from in-person dealings and the One Lime Street in London’s main financial district. However, senior executives...

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Cannabis Insurance Specialists See Optimism in 2024 Data, Planning for Growth and More Capacity

Article 0 Comments From a broad view, data from the cannabis industry fails to paint an informative picture of what lies ahead for the business in 2024 or what the year holds for insurance professionals specializing in servicing the sector. Despite a prevailing public focus on the cannabis glut hampering sales in long-legal states, data from industry analysts show cannabis sales overall in the U.S. are poised for growth next year and beyond – with strong performances from new states and emerging product categories. Some of that growth is because cannabis is now legal for adult-use or medical-use in most states, putting 53% of Americans in a legal state, which is expected to help drive cannabis sales over the next few years to $54 billion by 2027, according to the MJBiz Factbook. Dragging on that growth is increased competition that has pushed the average retail price of cannabis down. Data from cannabis analytics firm BDSA shows average retail prices across mature markets – Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada and Oregon – fell 13% between the third quarter of 2021 and the same time in 2022, with some markets seeing price compression higher than 20%. Despite the downward trend, cannabis consumer participation...