Advice Category Combinations: How Consumers Combine Experiences Reveals Barriers and Tailwinds to Trial & Engagement
2024
The EQ™ Exercise Advice Category Combinations probes how consumers combine experiences across the 9 categories of financial advice and their understanding of the features and pricing that each category delivers today.
Exercise
“In-Plan Retirement Income Solution”: Consumer Reactions to the Latest Trends in Guaranteed Income Design to Inform Product Enhancements and Reduce Barriers to Adoption
2024
This concept test examines receptivity to target date retirement funds in employer-sponsored plans with an option to allocate up to 30% of the account balance to an annuity starting at age 55 for a lifetime income stream at retirement. As incidence of pensions continues to decline, personal assets are anticipated to play a more important role among sources of retirement income and resistance to keeping defined contribution balances in plan thaws, these guaranteed income solutions offer a new execution of an old idea.
Concept Test
Expectations for Products and Stores: Strategic Responses to Changing Power Dynamics for Asset Managers & Distributors
2023
This exercise sought insights into current consumer appreciation of relative value add delivered by asset managers (products) vs. distribution partners (stores) to analyze the power dynamics that affect realities and strategies for product distribution and pricing.
Exercise
Pricing Mechanisms: Consumer Perspectives on What’s Worth Paying for, Preferred Ways to Pay, and Surprising Attitudes to “Free”
2023
This exercise explores how consumers think they should pay (if at all!) for different products and services to inform pricing strategies going forward. Flat fees are both a threat and an opportunity.
Exercise
Features That Deliver Simplicity: Building for the #1 Driver of Money Movement
2023
This exercise sought qualitative insights on what the #1 factor motivating money movement transactions – “simplify my finances” – means to consumers to identify capabilities and marketing messages that will drive more money movement.
Exercise
“Direct Indexing Managed Account” (vs. Traditional Managed Products like Mutual Funds, ETFs, SMAs): How to Engage Consumers in the Managed Account Structure of the Future
2023
This concept test examines a new managed product wrapper that uses individual stocks to deliver separately managed accounts to inform product and innovation strategies going forward.
Concept Test
"Elder Financial Care" aka Periodic vs. Subscription Pricing
2018
Building on well-liked predecessor tests, "Elder Financial Care" provokes price discovery by first presenting two separately priced options with distinct features and then presenting a blended option with ambiguity in payment mechanisms
"Banking & Investing Together" with New Saving Techniques
2018
Examine participant likes/ dislikes in using the same firm to bank and invest, offering automatic transfers and using tools for allocation of finances.
"Digital Investment Advice with Planning Option"
2018
Identify participant likes/dislikes for online, automated investment advisory priced in bps, coupled with an option for personalized financial planning advice for a flat fee.
"Investment Account for Future Healthcare Expenses" or HSA
2018
Explore awareness to HSAs and receptivity to using for long-term asset accumulation.
2018
Participants discussed awareness and relevance of asset management firms.
Social Uses of Technology in Investing
2018
To stimulate discussion about how participants use technology to find and exchange saving and investing information, with probes on mobile and lending.
How Friends are Influencing Investment Decisions
2018
Understand how are younger consumers feel about moving cash to riskier investments, ESG and Bitcoin. How has the gig economy shaped their investing? How and in what ways are their friends influencing their investment decisions?
Expectations from Workplace vs. Retail Advice
2018
Explores the attitudes and experiences of older affluent investors with financial services provided through the workplace compared to services these investors obtain on their own. The primary purpose is to stimulate qualitative discussion on advice in employer-sponsored programs vs. retail (outside of work).
Motivations to Move Cash into Investments
2018
Participants shared the factors that cause them to keep cash and what would motivate them to move cash into an investment.
"Home Conversion Mortgage" aka Reverse Mortgage
2018
Explores awareness and receptivity to using mortgages for aging in place, employing a disguised name to avoid preconceived notions about reverse mortgages.
"Financial Advice Menu" and Pricing
2018
Examines how investors want to access and pay for various pieces of financial advice and service.
"Investment Account for Future Health Care Expenses" or HSA
2017
Explore HSA awareness and receptivity to use for long-term accumulation (using different name for this type of account).
"Educational Funding for Grandchildren"
2017
Understand receptivity for a package that offers grandparents savings and gifting solutions.
"Hybrid Active-Passive Fund"
2017
Understand participant likes/dislikes for a mutual fund concept that combines active management and indexing based on market direction.
Regulatory: "Change in Mutual Funds Available"
2017
Gauge reactions to a communication of two of today's thorny regulatory and strategic issues: fiduciary standard and home office oversight.
Expectations from Different Levels of Advice
2017
Understand how consumers assign topics to different levels of advice.
Loyalty to Firm vs. Advisor
2017
Stimulate discussion about the connections consumers feel to advisors in comparison to firms.
Beliefs & Truths about Investing Experience
2017
Understand perceptions around being an experienced or inexperienced investor, including how perceived experience affects investing and how a consumer becomes experienced.
"Choice Box" aka Inside Advice® Grid
2017
Compare advice and guidance value propositions using the consumer choice architecture framework for advice and guidance experiences from the Inside Advice® Database.
Midlife Pressures & Checking Progress to Goals
2017
Explore participant life goals with their money and how current trends or recent changes in our country, such as the gig economy, the fiduciary proposal or others, are affecting finances, feelings and progress toward these goals.
Roles for Primary & Secondary Sources of Advice
2017
Understand primary and secondary sources of saving and investing information and advice and attitudes toward these sources.
Methods for Paying for Advice
2017
Examine pricing mechanism(s) that make the most sense to participants for different types of advice and guidance: part of product, commissions, percentage fee or flat fee.
"Long-Term Retirement Investment"
2017
Understand participant likes/dislikes for a product that trades liquidity for institutional investments and potentially higher return at lower volatility within an employer-sponsored retirement plan.
"Financial Advice for Non-Traditional Families"
2017
Understand participant likes/dislikes for repositioning a traditional service to a modern, targeted design persona (blended, nontraditional families).
"Investment Income Matched to Expense Types"
2016
Explore opportunities to create products or services that align investment strategies to consumer goals.
"Financial Wellness Subscription Program"
2016
"Financial Wellness" addresses Millennials, new entrants focused on workplace, and Consumer Finance Protection Bureau definition.
"Invested Emergency Fund"
2016
"Invested Emergency Fund" addresses low interest rates, the need for better emergency funds and their connection to retirement saving, and recent campaigns by new entrants.
"Investments and Insurance Package" for Gig Workers
2016
"Investments & Insurance Package" addresses the rise of the "gig" economy (and decline of traditional employment), and heavy advertising by property insurers to young consumers.
Regulatory: "Proposed Fiduciary Rule"
2016
Explore consumer reaction to the proposed fiduciary rule for retirement accounts.
Motivating Advertising Messages
2016
Examine messages being used in current advertising campaigns, online and print, by investment product and financial advisory firms. What offers and advertising campaigns motivate consumers to make changes?
2016
Examine factors that lead shoppers to think about making a change to their stores or products. Understand current and prior relationships with both store or product providers.
2016
Understand investor feelings, what they hope to achieve, what prompts responses from shoppers, and what might motivate dissatisfied consumers on the sidelines to look for something better.
"Financial Decision-making Support for Aging"
2016
Reveal opportunities to position existing capabilities to protect older consumers and ideas for productizing new services.
Regulatory: "Best Interest Contract"
2016
Uncover considerations for communications about implementing the new Fiduciary Rule.
Attitudes to "Robo-Advisors" Among Older Consumers
2016
Reveal current awareness of top "robos."
Blending of Digital and Professional Advice by Pain Point
2016
Understand when and why older consumers choose digital or professional help from a human resource vs. digital and for what topics.
Digital Options Leading to Choosier Older Consumers
2016
Understand how and why older consumers seek help on tasks from various sources of advice.
2015
Examine robo-advisory firms using materials on positioning, process and pricing and understand participant likes/dislikes, including use of aggregation tools.
2015
Participants rate the concept test in terms of usefulness, and why. How would they use it. Identify anything missing or that should be improved. Examine which firms might provide something like this and how much it should cost.
2015
Understand receptivity, why investors might use (or not). Identify potential concerns.
"Overview of Income" for Statements & Digital Views
2015
Understand how useful the concept test is, why and cost considerations.
Expectations from Products & Stores
2015
Who, or what, is helping them plan and make funding decisions? Have they tried a new advisor, product, or tool (if so, why)? Have they tried a robo-advisor, and are these solutions for people like them? Using a consumer goods analogy, participants discuss what they expect from Products and Stores. Using a grid where the x axis is sophistication and the y axis is costs, participants plot a selection of Products and Stores and discuss the factors behind this, and which are easier to place on the grid.
Language & Techniques for Generating Income in Retirement
2015
Understand the funding sources for consumers as they age and the terms they use for these income sources.
Retirement Funding Highest Needs & Pricing
2015
Examine decision-making on where to take money from, influences of taxes and estate planning; importance of accountants, estate lawyers, or investment advisors. Understand participant views on spending capital. If distributions are being taken from retirement plans, understand if they are spending them or reinvesting. Understand the importance of regular income and whether participants want money from investments to go into a spending account "periodically" (if so, how often).
Impact of Family Structure and Legacy Motive on Funding Old Age
2015
Examine how consumers are thinking about work, spending time, funding their lifestyle after ceasing full-time employment. Understand their concerns, goals and hopes for the future. Learn how families affect the decision about how long to work, whether they discuss money with family, the factors that affect this, and topics discussed.
2015
Using a timeline, each participant illustrates their relationship history with financial services providers, before drawing the future (i.e., new relationships and the outlook for current ones). Participants identify current types of investments they are using, including any Target-Date funds and income products, such as in-plan income options.
Goals, Definitions of Success & Milestones
2015
Examine participant life goals, financial goals, career goals, family goals, etc., to determine how they know when they've succeeded, and how they define financial success. Understand their goals for saving and their level of involvement in investing, including whether they seek traditional retirement or having enough money to work less or differently later in life. Understand their milestones, if they on schedule, if they have had to speed up or postpone things, and how their experience compare to their parents.
Roles for Stores vs. Products
2015
Discuss the roles and expectations of products and stores in investing.
Opportunities for Products
2015
How do the concepts compare to what they use now in terms of services and costs? What other companies are like these? Who would be willing to pay for the concepts, and for what attributes? Probe on embedded in-product expenses vs. out-of-pocket; financial vs. investment selection advice. What do they see as the role for these new companies vs. the stores and products they're currently using? Do they view these as products, stores or something else?
2015
Examine who or what helps participants to achieve their goals and milestones. Understand prior and current financial support from parents or others, including types of support and impact. Understand if participants believe it is the responsibility of parents and/or grandparents to financially support them, will they do the same someday, and who they currently provide financial support. Explore the saving and investing tasks they would like to have advice and support for, and which might be a premium service vs. free.
"Target Date Retirement Fund with Income"
2014
Understanding the degree participants think about retirement fund income, including the role of investment products, and which participants have looked into Social Security payouts. Examining which participants plan to use their savings as a source of income, how do they plan to do this, what products will they use for income, how taxes influence these decisions, where/who they turn to for help, and their level of confidence in current sources of help. Explore perceptions on costs and how they measure up to traditional self-service and full-service advisory models.
Regulatory: "FINRA IRA Oversight"
2014
Reactions to FINRA's in-depth examination of IRA rollover marketing
What I Really Wanted to Do All My Life
2014
Understand how to optimize the last chapter of life, and the host of questions that arise in this endeavor: When do they think they'll stop full-time work, and to what degree will they control the timing? What factors will influence the timing? If they are in control, how will they know they're ready? How are they preparing, including what are the different categories they're thinking about: financial, health, where to live, dependents/parents? Who is helping them think about this? Have they discussed this with a life partner? Who feels anxious about this, and, if so, why? Who uses websites/apps for advice or information?
Retirement Product Advertisements
2014
Reactions to print advertisements about key retirement issues, including savings, income, minimizing taxes and downside protection.
Packaged Product vs. Components Target Date Retirement Fund Use Case
2014
Understanding participant perceptions of these products, beliefs on what the products should it cost, and how they measure up to traditional self-service and full-service advisory models.
The Balance of Power Between Manufacturers & Distributors
2014
Understanding what participants expect from the manufacturers and distributors of investment products, and how this compare to other goods and services. Examining perceptions of how the parties performing vs. expectations, what could they do differently, and participant expectations for working with these providers in 10 or 20 years from now.
Current Investment Products & Influencers
2014
Understanding the types of accounts participants currently own and how much do they think about different product forms these investments can take, including ownership of target-date retirement funds and annuities. Examining how involved are they in investment selection, what makes an investment "good" or "bad," and how do they know if it's good or bad.
Transition from Accumulation to Income/Preservation
2014
Understand how middle-aged investors are thinking about the transition from saving to taking income in older age, barriers to consideration, and questions about the transition.
Looking Ahead to Stopping Full-time Work
2014
Understanding when participants think they'll stop full-time work and whether they believe they will be in control of the timing. Once they stop, understanding what do they envision doing, and how are they preparing, including specific categories they consider: financial, health (including insurance), where to live, dependents/parents. Learning about influencers who are helping them think about these decisions.
Regulatory: "Proposed In-Plan Income Product Guidance"
2014
Reactions to an IRS proposal to add lifetime income via annuities to Target Date funds offered within defined contribution plans.
Retirement Advice: Service-Pricing Spectrum
2014
Understand how investors are thinking about choices in service dimensions and pricing from full service to online tools.
George & Nina's Reasons for Seeking Help
2014
Understand what participants think of the array of advice/guidance options available to them, and how will they use face-to-face, technology. Examine the components they want to have in a plan, and how these change over time. Learn where participants go for retirement income advice currently or how they will find them in the future. Understand the factors that determine which relationships they keep. Consumer questions about the hypothetical couple of George & Nina are an effective way to understand participant concerns and what they would, and wouldn't, seek help for.
Chunk or Nothing: Sorting out Emotion & Reasons Behind Dipping into Principal
2014
Understand income preferences from savings when work slows or stops: in chunks as needed, a steady income stream or a mix. Understand which participants have calculated RMDs, the types of accounts and products they will invest in to facilitate this, and the expenses they pay with chunks or a steady stream, and whether this will this change over time.
"Retirement Transition Services"
2013
Examine participant perceptions about "Transition Services," a resource to help with deciding where to live, finding work, choosing and signing up for healthcare insurance, minimizing taxes, determining a strategy for taking Social Security and more.
2013
Examine participant perceptions about "Couples Planning," a service that helps couples get on the same page about retirement finances and lifestyle, and bridges any skill or interest gaps that may exist.
2013
Understand current and prior providers, including how they met, any potential changes foreseen in the future, and factors that would influences changes in providers. Explore the trial process for new providers and selection factors.
Competitive Perceptions of Product/Service Quality & Price
2013
Understand participant perceptions of service and product quality of different providers of investments and/or retirement planning as well as pricing.
Experiences & Surprises of Retirement
2013
Understand what participants have learned about retirement that could help others, including an examination of their life experiences - financial, health, personal, lifestyle (leading up to and in retirement) - and how reality has compared to expectations. Understand their ability to find work if desired, and if they are working, how this was achieved. Learn if partners/spouses have different plans than participants, how differences were resolved, and to what degree any of this was discussed with their children.
Sources of Funds aka "Retirement Income"
2013
Understand the components of income in retirement. If taking Social Security, examine timing and decision making. Explore advice participants would give to others and their thoughts on RMDs and taxes.
