Advisors need easy and fast access to content to help them make better investment decisions and engage their clients and prospects. A number of companies deliver this kind of content. 

We all know Morningstar is a great tool for investors, but do you also know it’s the most popular, highly regarded source of investment information for advisors? They do a great job consolidating their insights on packaged products like mutual funds as well as tools that help advisors more easily navigate investment choices.

I founded Bison to create a source of information on private investment. Advisors in the institutional world consider it a trusted source of knowledge on alternative investment returns. To keep our focus on private investments, they don't yet have plans to extend it to retail advisors.

Of the over 350 plans we have received from startups, many target alternative spaces for retail advisors. Some are distribution plays that leverage culture to drive sales. Other plans propose the use of content to inform non correlated, client asset choices.

Startups are also using social media to drive content to advisors. They’re creating services on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to alert advisors of relevant client and prospect activity. This allows advisors to engage with existing and potential investors in a more personalized way — engagements that are even more productive when advisors use psychological profiles to approach people based on personal motivators; whether they be facts or emotions.

Another digital transformation trend is following public companies’ social media digital footprint to inform predictions of potential sales growth. A case study in Harvard Business Review does a great job at showing the correlation between these activities, sales growth and higher stock prices. See the article below for more on this topic. Value creation in digital has come a long way.

Mike Nugent
Managing Director