"Institutional investing" isn’t as great as you think

That’s what Van Kampen Investments discovered when it researched how to name a new retirement income product.

“Institutional” means expertise to financial services professionals, but it makes individuals think of hospitals and prisons, said Andrew Scherer, managing director, Van Kampen Investments, in his comments to the Managing Retirement Income conference on Feb. 10.

Van Kampen named its new product “Retirement Strategy Funds” and adopted the tag line “helping you build a better plan” under the influence of research showing that
1. “‘Retirement’ resonated better than ‘Freedom,’ ‘Target,’ ‘Lifetime’ and others.”
2. “‘Strategic’ tested better than ‘automatic,’ ‘institutional,’ or ‘customized.'”
3. “Positive messaging resonates, fear-based does not.”

Can you think of other words that mean different things to you and your clients? Would you agree that “risk” is one of those words? Please leave a comment.

Related posts:
* Highlights from the Managing Retirement Income Conference
* Notable quotes from the Managing Retirement Income Conference