solutions that work

I recently received several printed pieces in the mail that I actually opened and read. The purpose of any communication is to resonate with its intended audience, which is hopefully the senders’ target audience. The first successful promotion sent via “snail mail” to my home was the brochure for the American Ballet Theatre. The incredible

                Whether you’re helping your clients accumulate or preserve their assets, making rational recommendations based on the numbers can be the easy part. To really get it right, you might want to trade your CFA for a PsyD. That’s because, for many investors, emotional behavior, particularly during times

Last week the Twitter hashtag celebrated its 10th birthday. For those interested in a little history, the hashtag was created by designer Chris Messina, who asked on August 23, 2007 the innocuous question “how do you feel about using # (pound) for groups. As in #barcamp [msg]?” For those burning to know what the heck

The rise of liquid alternatives funds appears to have peaked. The chart below shows the annual asset levels and net flows of open end liquid alt funds since their introduction during the Financial Crisis. While the number of liquid alts continues to rise, total assets for these products have started to decline and cash flows

Work we’ve done on pricing recently has gotten us thinking about that intersection of supply and demand that defines optimal pricing. When should a price be raised or lowered? When is a price excessive, fair or too generous? First movers in an emerging category often have the luxury of naming their own price. They’re ahead

It was recently reported that assets in Blackrock’s Style Advantage, a factor based hedge fund, nearly doubled in the first half of 2017 to reach an impressive $1.6 billion. The fund’s performance was reasonably strong but the boost in interest is likely to have been driven also by pricing. With a 0.95% investment management charge

At Optima Group, we often look outside financial services for inspiration in how consumers are served best. While companies such as Amazon or Apple are often cited as classic examples of the move from disruptor to market leader, another telling example comes from an unlikely source, the world of vacuum cleaners. More specifically, the work

PriceMetrix recently released the firm’s annual report on key growth, pricing and market trends in the wealth management industry. What distinguishes the report is that it is based on a large sample of actual accounts. (The survey sample includes data drawn from 24 North American wealth management firms employing a total of 60,000 financial advisors,