Well, I do … but it seems that despite some gains, financial services professionals remain reluctant to incorporate social media into their business models. A recent poll in FundFire (A Financial Times Service) among financial services professionals found that 60% found that social media had either no impact or was risky, 30% found that it was moderately helpful and only 11% felt that it provided a boost to their businesses.

Surprising is that 11% is down from 17% in a similar poll taken last year by the same organization. Now, we all know that voluntary polls like this are not too scientific, but it is surprising that this number went down given the same potential audience of respondents, especially since a number of sponsor firms, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney for one, have expanded their efforts in this area.

I believe that the most rational explanation for these results is that some of my fellow “Type A” financial services professionals are just not being patient enough to see results. It takes time! Additionally, while everyone would love to get new business from their social media efforts, and eventually this may come, the more immediate impacts are harder to quantify and gauge, namely greater brand awareness and client servicing.

I understand that many in the industry cite compliance reasons for not participating in social media, but advances in understanding and software have alleviated many of these concerns. Granted, if you work for a firm that does not allow or limits social media, there is not much you can do. But if you are the decision-maker, or can influence the decision, remember to take a longer-term perspective.

Social media allows people to get to know you on their terms – which is how people want it these days.

PriceMetrix released a new report today that found that advisors moving clients more aggressively into fee-based accounts saw revenue growth of 47% over the past three years compared to an average growth rate of 21%; these advisors also had above-average growth in assets under management as well as return on assets.

(PriceMetrix is a well-respected practice management solution provider. The validity of the report partially rests on the size of the study, which represented data covering 3.2 million investors, 500 million transactions, 1 million fee-based accounts, 4 million transactional accounts and over $900 billion in assets as of May 2012.)

Some other results from the study which support fee-based accounts include:

• The average fee-based account is 46% larger than the average transactional account;
• The average fee-based account generates three times as much revenue – $2,900 per account v. $870; and
• Households with at least one fee-based account generate a return on assets that is 40% -70% higher than households that are purely transactional.

There is a lot more in this study, but for now it suffices to say that advisors who have been considering the move into fee-based business should take note. For years, there has been a debate in the industry less about “if,” but more about “how fast” an advisor should convert this/her book (or at least a portion of it), from transactional business to fee-based business, recognizing that your income may initially go down.

The flip side is that while this reduction in income phenomenon may be true in the short-run, switching your business mix toward fee-based business will leverage your time, thus allowing more time to grow your business while also giving the peace of mind that on January 1st of each year you have already “guaranteed” a large portion of your income with more sticky assets.

A final statistic about the subset of advisors who grew their fee-based business by at least 25% during the three-year period studied: the average advisor in this group saw a 49% increase in assets under management and a 41% increase in recurring revenue. They also almost doubled the number of households in their book which generated more than $5,000 or more in revenue each year while significantly reducing those clients that generated less than $500.

Definitely some food for thought! The question on advisors minds should not be if they should convert part of their book, but how fast!

When it rains it usually pours, but the last thing that JP Morgan needed was more bad press this past week, not only in industry publications but the New York Times as well. A number of former financial advisors claim that they were encouraged to favor JP Morgan’s own products even when there were better-performing and/or cheaper options available.

The issue of selling proprietary v. non-proprietary products goes deeper than JP Morgan however, and had been around for years. As an example, last year’s internal disagreement that became public at Bank of America/Merrill Lynch over whether or not pressure was, and should be, put on advisors to sell bank products to clients.

This latest focus on JP Morgan is bad timing for financial advisors – coming at a time of continuing anti-Wall Street sentiment and an investing environment where returns are hard to get. In football, they call it piling on!

(I’m going to focus here on how advisors should react to this ongoing stream of bad press. I’m not going to pass judgement on JP Morgan and others for their actions. Undoubtedly, pressure exists within certain financial institutions to sell proprietary products; one would have to be naive to assume otherwise. But the burden falls on advisors as well to resist this pressure; there is enough blame on all sides to go around.)

So what should advisors do? As with any potentially negative issue, they need to get in front of this one and proactively demonstrate to their clients that they always act in their best interest.

For advisors that have sold proprietary products, I suggest that you devise a plan to show clients how the investments that you have recommended to them made sense for, and fit into, their portfolios. Talk to them before they start asking questions. Take responsibility for your actions and don’t blame the company or anyone else for putting pressure on you – that’s a sure way to lose credibility.

If you haven’t sold proprietary products, discuss this issue with clients as well, because if you don’t, they will wonder about your motives (sad but true in the world we live in). Whether individually or through your social media outlets, reiterate how you work with clients and how your process is unbiased and your product choices holistic rather than profit-driven.

You have to and should defend your choices – why not turn it into a positive?