Notes from Net.Finance- Personal Financial Management (PFM)

I recently had the opportunity to attend the Net.Finance Conference in Chicago. It is, by far, one of the best conferences for those of us focused on the digital channels of financial services. Over the next couple of weeks, I'll be writing about some of the main themes from the conference.
When I was there, I was fortunate enough to be part of a panel discussion on Personal Financial Management (PFM) along with Patrick Smith of Wells Fargo, Eric Connors of Yodlee, and Edward Chang of Strands.
We had a lively discussion about the benefits of PFM for our customers, the challenges of getting people to use it, and the pros and con's of aggregation services. While the benefits are pretty clear (better financial management) the biggest challenge, as noted by Patrick, is inertia. Managing your finances is certainly important, but not critical. Setting up goals and budgets falls somewhere around cleaning out the gutters on the "to do" list. The key, perhaps, is to help educate the consumers about the benefits to make it move up that list.
One of the classic differences between my organization, a smaller community bank, and Wells is the approach to aggregation. Wells provides tools that help manage those accounts that are with Wells while we offer a service to add all your accounts, even from other institutions. Perhaps this highlights the major difference between big and small banks. We see this as a service that is the right thing for the customer, while they look at it from an internal perspective of what is right for the organization. We (of course) think ours is the better approach.

FI's and Personal Financial Management

After a very enjoyable Memorial Day weekend, I wanted to complete my post about the Panel discussion at Net.Finance. After our social media discussion, the second topic we covered was around Personal Financial Management (PFM) tools. Mark Schwanhausser of Javelin Strategy has been a huge proponent of PFM's. In fact, Javelin research has found that of consumers who are looking for money management help, 63% want to see all their accounts and transactions in one place.

Both Stu Fisher and I are introducing PFM solutions at our organizations later this year. Addison Avenue is working with Jwaala while we are working with Geezeo. Our solution, called Mariner360, is going through Beta testing right now. Unlike Addison Avenue, our solution will not be integrated into our Online Banking platform. This is for two reasons. One, the time frame to integrate the two platforms would have been prohibitive. Two, we actually think each solution addresses different and distinct needs. Online Banking is a tool for performing tasks, like checking a balance, transferring funds, or paying a bill. Mariner360 will provide our customers a more holistic view of their assets and liabilities to manage their whole financial life. Providing a place to set budgets, goals, and manage their financial life is what we should be doing for our customers. Our Mariner360 platform will help us meet that role.