Advisor Squawk
Mission Statement

Our goal at Advisor Squawk is to serve the advisor and product distribution community with curated news and original content on a daily basis.  That’s a simple statement, but what does this mean for advisors of all types for your business? It starts with the idea that all of us working in this space are inundated with a constant flow of messaging from a myriad of sources, that may or may not be relevant to your business.  The sheer volume of emails, product messaging, sales ideas, regulatory updates, etc. are so overwhelming that most of us have reached a place where we simply turn off to the noise.

However, within all this noise many of these significant inbox resources are often overlooked, as there are so many productive hours in the day.  Our aim at Advisor Squawk is to compile the best content from across the internet on a daily basis, in an organized fashion, so that the entire financial services community can access this content from a single source.  Does this mean we will provide access to 100% of the resources that are critical to your business?  That’s a lofty goal that we are unlikely to meet coming out of the box.  But given the significance of this tool, our hope is that our value-added content will enhance your productivity, while driving more sales and revenue through your efforts.  This approach applies to advisors, wholesalers, and product management.

As we forge ahead, Advisor Squawk will offer industry news, that’s updated at least daily, and possibly more frequently. A further aim of Squawk is to offer the most compelling sales, leadership, and productivity resources available through the online community.  Covering the product side of the industry is another goal of ours.  This includes news on individual product providers, manufacturers, and third-party distribution. Finally, we intend to provide coverage on how product distributors can be more effective in their relationships with both firms and their advisors.

I feel compelled to write that Advisor Squawk intends to be totally disruptive in our coverage of the space.  While our reporting on the industry will concentrate on curated content, we will be publishing content that is exclusive to this site.  Our efforts are likely to focus on wholesaling effectiveness, advisor productivity and a large part of the product universe in the advisor space.  Advisors and wholesalers often live in a bubble, where the strategy they receive from management can often conflict with client needs.  This is not intentional, rather it’s the direct result of the constant push for both productivity and profitability from all sides.  The best way to deal with this reality is through transparency.

Given the size of the financial universe and the volume of news generated daily, we intend to focus our coverage on packaged investment products, annuities and life insurance.  While the investment markets are of primary concern to our editorial content, we won’t be spending much time on individual securities.  But we are curious as to why and how individual companies succeed or fail.  Accordingly, we may provide coverage as the news cycle evolves.

As a former financial advisor, wholesaler & national sales manager, I have some unique experience when it comes to the relationships between product providers & advisors.  We intend to offer coverage on all forms of product distribution.  My personal feeling is that wholesalers have become a devalued resource.  If you disagree, consider how many calls from product providers go unanswered and how many meeting requests with wholesalers are ignored.  Some distribution companies understand wholesaling well, but for the most part the advisor community views wholesalers as product representatives. And that is a distinction with a difference.  We hope to help change that narrative by bringing advisors closer to the products that best fit their client’s needs.

Finally, Advisor Squawk is a politics free zone.  There will be no commentary on the current political times if it can be avoided at all costs.  We will post articles covering markets, economics and the overall financial landscape.  Some of the coverage will delve into politics, but we have no intention of taking sides when it comes to political candidates and their issues.

Thank you for taking the time to get to know us better.  We look forward to your engagement.

Seth Friedman

Managing Editor