Need To Know May

ThinkAdvisor Marketing Blog:
Financial marketers look for post-pandemic insights

• Will our customers still love us? Several customers whose products did really well during the remote-work reality of the pandemic need to understand how the objectives of customers and prospects will change as we head back to offices, even part time.

• Help us define key customer segments. With targeting even more important to marketers post-pandemic, we’ve seen a number of our customers looking for crucial data points to help define fast-changing trends in key segments of their businesses.

• Find data to make the case for a new product. New entrants to markets are even more interested in finding compelling data points to help them drive awareness and pull mindshare away from incumbents.

• I need to make a splash with data. With lots of market upheaval and change, there is a big appetite for vertical market data to make sense of it all. As a result, companies are looking for data to make news and get attention.

If any of these needs seem familiar, I’d welcome the opportunity to talk to you about how ThinkAdvisor can tailor a custom research program to help guide and drive marketing programs as we move forward in the second half of the year. For more information on our custom research offerings, click here.

Trends Financial Marketers Need To Know

• Tax changes. Tax changes are front, right and center, as President Biden’s American Families Plan includes proposals to increase taxes on wealthy individuals — such as through a hike in top income tax rate and a jump in the capital gains tax rate — as part of its funding. “Several of the suggested proposals in Biden’s tax plan could significantly affect retirees and change how financial advisors build efficient retirement income plans,” according to tax expert Joe Elsasser and others, who stress that there are many changes for advisors and clients to carefully consider.

• Required minimum distributions / 401(k) auto-enrollment. Congress is considering changes to required minimum distributions, which also would impact retirees and retirement planning. The Secure Act 2.0 also aims to expand auto-enrollment in 401(k) plans, 403(b) and Simple plans. Many financial experts see the change in the RMD age as a step in the wrong direction, but they point out that it most affects those with “significant resources.”

• Social Security. In light of all these changes, advisors need to review all factors affecting clients’ decisions on Social Security claiming. Also, there is a risk that funding for Social Security could be trimmed if the program’s trust funds aren’t shored up, which Congress is examining. With all these issues at play, experts like Jason Fichtner are suggesting that advisors and clients reconsider annuities as a way to “bridge the gap” between when individuals leave the workforce and when they begin taking benefits at the full or even the maximum retirement age.

• SEC and regulatory changes. Advisors and regulators should pay attention to other developments expected on the regulatory front now that Gary Gensler has been confirmed as SEC chairman. “Gensler’s going to be part of an activist regulatory agenda generally in the financial service sector,” according to Charles Schwab General Counsel Chris Gilkerson, who believes the “fallout from the GameStop trading situation will also be pretty high on his agenda.” Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa.,said he’s concerned Gensler will use the SEC in an “inappropriate manner and stray from the SEC’s tradition of bipartisanship.”