Outsourcer pledges to overhaul proposal technology and support for advisors. In an apparent move to put teeth in its campaign to win more business from independent advisors SEI says it plans to expand its proposal-generation technology to help advisors build out their businesses in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

The planned enhancement -- to include customized proposal generation capabilities and other "technological enhancements" backed by live support -- comes on the back of a study of SEI's Advisor Network clients by Seattle-based business consultancy Moss Adams. Among other things, the study shows that SEI's advisors spend more than half their time on administration and business processing and only about 2% of their time on prospecting for new business.

Time constrained

"Especially when facing tough competition, advisors have found they can benefit from additional resources and expertise," says Steve Onofrio, a senior managing director with SEI Advisor Network. "With countless other business demands, particularly their client-facing needs, advisors simply don't have the time they need to commit to a competitive proposal process.

SEI says a staff of 20 "experienced financial professionals, who will work with advisors to develop a variety of complex, customized proposals for prospective clients" has been set up to provide proposal support.

This is the same team that has been at work since April, initially calling on SEI Advisor Network's users to get a better sense of their support needs -- and, it would seem, shoveling Moss Adams some of the raw data for its study. In addition to providing proposal support and taking the pulse of the Advisor Network's client base, the outreach team provides marketing-support and business-consulting services to Advisor Network users.

Fall campaign

This is meant to help SEI win more business from the 6,000 or so independent registered investment advisors and brokers its supports -- in many cases with investment products alone. The Advisor Network's broader service offering runs to back-, middle- and front-office support, client-service and practice-management consulting and a turnkey wealth-management platform, which is backed by a SEI-based support team of its own.

The proposal support piece of that SEI is highlighting these days is intended to help advisors "develop a variety of complex, customized proposals for prospective clients," SEI says in a press release. The proposal team will also "provide live support to advisors, detailed competitive analysis, [presentation coaching], role-play scenarios, and discuss tax-transition strategies for new clients."

According to Onofrio, SEI's new proposal-support initiative "combines the best technologies with sound financial strategy and the human interaction essential for winning new business."

Oaks, Pa.-based SEI says it's rolling out a "comprehensive nationwide tour" this autumn to publicize its proposal-support capabilities. It's also committed to a "major overhaul" of its existing proposal technology by 2007. - FWR

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