Principal Beefs Up Advisor Services

April 4, 2006 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - The Principal Financial Group has expanded its offering of support resources for advisors, the company announced.

Offered exclusively to advisors of key distribution partners at wire houses and independent broker-dealers, the resources are delivered through directors of business development (DBDs) who help advisors in third-party channels grow their business, Principal said in a news release.

According to the Principal announcement, Principal now offers advisors help across a wide variety of topics, including:

  • creating an effective sales and service process,
  • developing a value proposition that clearly illustrates the advisor’s value to clients,
  • building an advisor presentation,
  • benchmarking a prospect’s 401(k) program,
  • using a proprietary request for proposal (RFP) system that allows advisors to formalize a vendor search and quantify the results, and
  • creating investment policy and employee education policy statements.

“We’ve received excellent feedback from the advisor community on the support and resources provided through our DBDs. There’s really no other role like it in the industry today,” said Dan McGee, vice president – national sales director, business development, The Principal ,  in the announcement. “This success spurred us to more than double the number of DBDs from eight to 17 nationwide. We’re also expanding the package of solutions brought to advisors from corporate retirement plans and Total Retirement Suite to include retail mutual funds (Principal Investors Funds), retirement income solutions and annuities.”

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