If size matters to prospective recruits, Merrill Lynch is betting that $1.5 trillion in AUM is evidence that its approach is the "right" one.

Merrill's new ad campaign is aimed at both investors and advisors. The advisor-facing side highlights the firm's size as the proof of its business model: "$1.5 trillion in client balances is more than a vote of confidence."

On that side, the new tag line has already rolled out as part of Merrill's recruiting materials and across its website.

Interestingly, the goal here seems to be capturing talent from non-advisory industries and feeding them into the wirehouse. "Career-changers" are expressly courted here, without much mention of advisors who are already in the field but are affiliated with other firms.

In terms of the investor-facing side of the campaign, it remains to be seen whether the $1.5 trillion in AUM will turn many heads. Size may not be everything -- in fact, competing advisors who explicitly promote themselves as being small or community-focused may be able to compete on their own terms here by providing "boutique" service.

Either way, the new ads are rolling out in publications like the New Yorker this week. Hard to argue with the idea that the "right" advisor is the way that any investor should go. The question is how any advisor -- from Merrill or elsewhere -- proves that he or she really is the right one. 

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Tags: CFP Board | financial planning

The CFP Board just started a $36 million four-year campaign to boost awareness of the certified financial planner mark in publications that cater to mass affluent investors.

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The campaign compares readers of magazines like Money, Smart Money, and Kiplinger's to puppets in the grip of macro financial forces -- unless, naturally, they have a financial plan.

Given the middle-market audience those magazines serve, it appears that the CFP Board is hoping to drive self-directed types with relatively low amounts of investable wealth to CFP designees.

If the campaign drives even one prospect to each designee per year, it will easily pay for the increase in fees that the CFP Board is charging for use of the mark starting in July. 

On the other hand, some markets may be overpopulated with planners. Here in Portland, Maine, for example, the CFP Board's site letsmakeaplan.org lists 46 CFP professionals -- about 1 for every 1,000 people in a not-extremely-affluent part of the country.

Towns of similar size and income level in states like Wyoming or New Mexico have maybe 2 planners for every 25,000 people at best. Those planners may reap the big rewards of the new promotional campaign. We will just have to see.

Tags: prospecting

The experts are saying that to reach the right prospects, you've got to be online but reach back into traditional media -- and that's where the old-fashioned unpaid appearance still shines.

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Great piece in Registered Rep laying out several white papers and guru interviews.

The SEI discussion is especially interesting, since it most directly puts the focus back on the expert commentator gig -- for local as well as national media -- as a great way to get your face and your brand out there.

By now, everyone in the industry knows that women are forceful financial decision-makers -- this isn't the '60s. But the latest survey that announces this "surprising fact" also has some helpful prospecting tips.

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A polling firm called Mintel recently "discovered" that younger women are making their own investing decisions, and the more affluent they are, the more likely they are to have an independent brokerage account.

That's not news. What's noteworthy here is where those independent women go for investment information.

Mintel discovered that 39% of female investors get most of their ideas from professional advisors, compared to just 27% of the men. This indicates that women appear to be more likely to seek out -- and even follow -- outside guidance. 

And as to where they find those advisors, it looks like recommendations from friends and family still rule: in the absence of an established advisor, 29% of female investors go to members of their personal social circle for ideas.

By comparison, the men tend to try to do it themselves online, going to financial blogs 38% of the time or sticking around their broker or fund company's site another 31% of the time. 

As Mintel points out, a balanced offline/online marketing strategy can help capture clients of both sexes -- but if you rely too much on the Web, you'll lose the women.