Agile Development Tops kasina's Annual Ranking of Best Financial Advisor Websites

NEW YORK, Oct. 1, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- kasina, a DST company providing data-driven insights and distribution solutions to financial companies around the world, today released the results of its annual review of asset managers' websites.

The report – "Advancing the Advisor Decision Journey with the Advisor Website" – suggests that personalization is gaining momentum among successful sites. The report also includes a ranking of the top five mutual fund advisor websites based on advisor responses.

For its 2015 analysis, kasina surveyed more than 450 financial advisors on website personalization, demographics, and user behavior. The results were then combined with reviews of more than 40 asset manager advisor websites to create a unique and comprehensive set of criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of asset manager websites. (Note: kasina does not compensate financial advisors who participate in the surveys, and asset managers do not pay to be evaluated.)

"It's clear that asset managers need to personalize content, and the survey shows that some firms are doing much better to that end than others," says Tracy Needham, Senior Research Analyst for kasina. "Advisors get frustrated with websites that appear to have nothing to do with their interests, and frustrating advisors is hardly a way to become a trusted partner."

Among the kasina report's key findings:

• Personalization is gaining momentum, with four in 10 asset managers currently tailoring site content based on broker/dealer approvals and 26% personalizing content and fund recommendations.
• Firms that personalize utilizing marketing data use an average of 3.6 data points, including traffic source, advisor website subscriptions, and advisor response to marketing e-mails.
• Firms that utilize demographics data inputs use the advisor's channel or their distributor affiliation.
• Firms using Sales and CRM data use an average of 3.1 data points, with all citing the advisor's specialization as an input.

The study marks the first time kasina has incorporated behind-the-scenes personalization into its site evaluations. According to Needham, the results show a powerful new representation of what is important to advisors.

"Advisor websites are an important aspect of the advisor decision-making process yet they tend to be underfunded," says Needham. "Effectively presenting what advisors want to see will go a long ways toward earning their loyalty and their business."

kasina's Advisor Website report will help asset managers use their websites to more effectively and successfully advance the advisor decision journey. In addition to examples of best practices for website personalization, the report includes actionable recommendations for more successfully and cost-effectively turning interest into sales and greater loyalty.

For more information on kasina's "Advancing the Advisor Decision Journey with the Advisor Website" report, contact Myra Bartalos, Head of Marketing, at [email protected].

About kasina
kasina helps leading companies in the financial services industry manage data, gain insight, and ignite change in their business. A wholly-owned subsidiary of DST Systems, kasina enables businesses to transform the way they grow market share through the use of data, research, and advanced analytics in the design, marketing, and distribution of their products. For more information on kasina's distribution intelligence technologies, advanced analytics and research, and strategic advisory services, visit www.kasina.com.

About DST
DST Systems, Inc. is a leading provider of sophisticated information processing and servicing solutions to companies around the world. Through its global enterprise, DST delivers strategically unified transactions and business processing, data management, and customer communications solutions to the asset management, brokerage, retirement, and healthcare markets. Headquartered in Kansas City, MO., DST is a publicly-traded company on the New York Stock Exchange. For more information, visit www.dstsystems.com.

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