Blog

Mobile Sites – Not Dead Yet!

Posted by Anu Heda on Dec 20, 2010, in Thoughts , tagged with ,

We reviewed a dozen Web sites recently through our smartphone browsers.  Most experiences were bad.  If you’re considering improving your firm’s mobile experience we have three quick ideas:

  1. Redirect users to a .mobi site – most homepages were developed for a computer browser and don’t fit well on a small screen.  Some firms do an elegant job of redirecting the user to a DOT MOBI site configured for mobile devices.  That is a great experience.
  2. Make it lean – place only the most sought after and direct information on a mobile site.  Usually, that means bringing users to price & performance or bulleted commentary.

    Image from Vanguard Mobile Site

  3. Make it shareable – make it easy for the user to send a link directly to the mobile site. Many users will look something up on your mobile site only to share it with a colleague or client.  It’s not easy in a smartphone to “cut URL, tab to Outlook, create new mail, paste URL.”  Make this simple through your mobile site (even if the user wants to mail himself).

Your clients and prospects value having a presentable mobile Web site – render a price/performance information, product profiles, and some commentary quickly.

Is Social Media All About the Numbers?

Posted by Mike McLaughlin on Dec 17, 2010, in Thoughts , tagged with , , ,

As he took down a mole poblano chicken drumstick over lunch, I posed the following question to Anu:

If Twitter let us hide the number of people who follow Naissance, would you want to do it?

The genesis of the question was a social media project for a client and the discussions we’ve had around measuring the success of such efforts.  I thought about the Naissance Twitter account and LinkedIn profile, and that people encountering them probably:

  1. Focus immediately on the number of followers we have, and
  2. Make some sort of judgment based on that number

What if the 19 was 1,900?

At first I felt frustration.  Yes, we have 19 followers, but we’re a new company and have never made an explicit ask/push to get people to pay attention to our social media presence.  How dare anyone judge the Naissance book by its cover!  This “reasoning” led to my question for Anu.

Then, of course, I realized that people DO judge books by their covers.  At least in part.  That’s the real world.

So since social media “ROI” is a fantasy for most firms, the easiest proxy for how well social media efforts are going is the number of friends/followers you have.  And so the real world for social media means promotion is as important as content.  Maybe more. Getting people over the initial hurdle of engaging you is the first and most important challenge.

As unappealing as it may sound, being shamelessly self-promoting is probably a good idea.

Outsourcing what at the Family Office?

Posted by Anu Heda on Dec 13, 2010, in Thoughts

Last week, I attended a breakfast panel discussion about single-family and multi-family office practices.  Scale was the major topic discussed.  For the breadth and level of services requested, how large did a family’s AUA (assets under advisement) need to be? With caveats and nuances, the panelists settled in at $200 MM.  (Like you probably, I did the math on a hypothetical 1% and came to family office expenses at $2 MM.)

For families with AUA less than $200 MM, many family offices were banding together, taking on second families, or outsourcing specific services.  The panelists agreed that the Chief Investment Officer is a common function to outsource due to costs.

With those massive asset levels, outsourcing to a well-diversified asset manager would make sense.  The family office receives:

  • best-in-class money management
  • institutional-level service & pricing
  • cachet of using a top-tier asset manager

Surprisingly the panelists all mentioned outsourcing to specific individuals or very small firms.  Potentially the market is too small for large asset managers to dedicate sales & service teams (I don’t know how the US population of families with 50 – 200 MM in AUA.).  An asset manager with strong client-service teams in place could extend sales & investment management into this arena and garner significant (and sticky) assets.

Regulation (like everything else): It’s a people business

Posted by Anu Heda on Dec 09, 2010, in Thoughts , tagged with ,

Last week, I attended a breakfast discussion with Barbara Novick (of BlackRock) on regulatory changes coming online in the US & Europe.  Ms. Novick presented an overview that was both engaging and humorous.

Midway through the presentation, she shared a slide with names & pictures of key regulators and legislators involved with financial regulatory changes.  She said something that rocked my world, in its simplicity.

“Regulation – like everything else – is a people business.  People on this slide come and go.  With those changes come varying  work styles, appetites for academic rigor, and favors being called in.”

In my head, I imagined regulation development to be absent personality, self-interests, or varying levels of rigor.  (I loved being unveiled to my self-imposed blind spot.)

As she brought color to the regulation process, she noted the dearth of asset managers actively participating in Washington.  While many are ICI members, she said few directly participate in a process where the rule makers welcome their input and feedback.  I’m not a public policy expert, regulation expert, or legislation guru.  Still, I thought that’s a mistake.  If nothing else, participating in the formation of once-in-a-generation regulation enables you to tell the story that “we were there to help form a safer, more trusted future” to your clients.

For many advisors, institutions, and end investors, that will matter tremendously.

Avoid “Guilt by Association”

Posted by Anu Heda on Dec 08, 2010, in Thoughts , tagged with ,

The US attorney-led investigation into recent insider trading activities implicates numerous hedge funds.  The large newspapers provide daily coverage with business section headlines such as “Holdings Spiked Near Deal-Time.”

Many will read headlines like that daily and say most hedge funds cheat.  That’s not true.  And hedge funds that don’t cheat should actively discuss this with clients.

Plain and simple – if you choose not to address a message, you’re leaving interpretation up to someone else.  Here are two topics to consider sharing with clients & potential accredited investors.

  1. Investment Process – Reiterate your fund’s investment process and discipline.  Then speak – in specific terms – to how your process is incompatible with insider information.
  2. Audit Controls – Present the audit process used by you and your third-party auditor.  Then detail that the auditor is instructed to inquire about irregular trading and abnormal portfolio holdings.

Nothing assuages the most cynical investor.  Yet for the overwhelming majority, these ideas and similar ones will set investors’ minds at ease and enable your firm to own the conversation.  That’s a more favorable position than waiting for questions to come in.