Consulting

Spectrem Group is the premier consulting and market research firm in the wealth management and retirement industries. Why? 

• Our consultants have experience in the industries for which we consult, they are not "right out of MBA school" consultants. We have lived in the shoes of our clients: managing businesses at financial services companies, balancing budgets and organizational constraints, dealing with legacy systems, managing the expectations and deliverables received by demanding clients while still seeking to grow ROE And ROI.
   
• Our primary research allows us to develop strategies based upon facts. We can specifically quantify market opportunity. Our research clearly specifies what customers are demanding, how they want to be serviced and what their perceptions are of your competitors as well as your company.
   
• Our strategic process engages individuals within your organization so that solutions fit your corporate culture, are implementable, and "don't sit on the shelf".

Custom Research

Spectrem's in-depth knowledge of the wealth management, retirement and investment markets enables our research team to quickly understand your business challenges and design the appropriate custom research methodology to provide key insights to solve your challenges.  Our full range of capabilities include: 

• Qualitative Research
  
  • One-one-one in-depth in-person or telephone interviews
  • Focus groups
  • Small group discussion
• Quantitative Research
  
  • Telephone interviews
  • On-line surveys
  • Hard copy mail-based surveys

Our collaborative process with clients ensures that the survey design is tailored to our client and delivers the appropriate information to address the strategic issue.  Research findings are interpreted based on the research objective and provide implementable recommendations. 

Business challenges can be addressed by a few specific research approaches, such as client needs analysis for product development, market segmentation to identify your appropriate target market, competitive analysis to identify your product and service gaps in the market and a client satisfaction study to ensure client feedback drives strategy.

Sample consulting projects include the following:
 

1.  Super regional bank sought to increase the use of investment management subsidiary throughout the organization. 
 

Outcomes included reassessment of internal pay structures, introduction of systems and processes to share internal client references and information. Structure of units that varied by state were synchronized.

2.  Major communication network provider sought to develop a financial literacy market positioning.
 

Outcomes included the establishment of a "pay for content" function on the website and focus on retirement-based content programming. 

3.  Investment and trust subsidiary of major religious organization sought to reassess its annuity program. 
 

Outcomes included reassessment of product offering. Review of marketing through organization. More direct access to product rather than just through existing distribution system. Upgrade of online capabilities. 

4.  Regional trust company sought to develop product for "lower net worth" customer base to be delivered via social media. 

Outcomes included reassessment of trust platform and ability for advisors to access online information. investment product and overall organizational fees reassessed. 

5.  Large defined contribution providers sought operational benchmark assessment.  Five large defined contribution recordkeeping providers submitted to detailed technology and operational assessment to identify how they could internally improve operations and competitiveness.
 

Outcomes included recommendations based upon core competencies of each organization.