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Insights From ETRADE Senior Execs
We sat down with ETRADE's CEO Mitch Caplan and President/COO Jarrett Lilien. Here are some of the highlights of their comments:

• "Our cross-sell secret? Set it up as functionality, not as a separate product." ETRADE's first tool is Cash Optimizer, which shows customers how they can reallocate cash held at ETRADE to earn more interest. Loan Optimizer will launch by the end of 2005; and Total Optimizer will follow.

• "Merrill Lynch, Smith Barney, and the others have a gigantic hole in their pocket." "The traditional players have cleared out and left the space under $1 million," Caplan said. "They can't operate profitably for clients under $1 million. We can."

• "The traditional business is not that hard." ETRADE believes that it can develop a person-to-person advisory business. The tougher task -- building an electronic channel -- is already a core competence.

We used Forrester's Web Site Review methodology to evaluate the Web sites of Ameriprise Financial, Edward Jones, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, and Smith Barney. Here's what our analysis uncovered:

Lackluster results. Only Edward Jones was able to pass just three of the five tests.

Problematic category names. All five home pages failed the two criteria that deal with categories and subcategories.

Few best practices. Our test grades range from -2 (severe failure) to +2 (best practice). No site scored a +2 on any of the criteria.

These results represent a significant problem for full-service firms that are trying to serve the affluent. Why? Because consumers with more than $1 million in investable assets are the most active online investors, checking balances and trading online more frequently than mass-affluent and mainstream investors.

Let Us Know If We Can Help
Here are some areas where we've helped financial services firms:

• Customer experience reviews. We can evaluate the usability of your Web sites, emails, and phone apps.

• Web Site assessments. We can compare the features on your site with those of competitors.

• Market research. We can provide insights on consumers from our existing Consumer Technographics® data or through customized research.

• Online activity benchmarking. Compare your firm's online efforts with that of other banks and credit unions. We are also kicking off a multiclient research project on organizational models and staffing levels.

Research Referenced In This Issue Email Sender Validation: We're Not There Yet (37867) Employer 401(k) Advice Goes Unnoticed (37976) FFIEC Tells Banks To Formally Assess Fraud Risk (38112) Financial Services Forum Europe: Customer Advocacy Self-Test (38051) Full-Service Brokers' Home Pages Fail Usability Test (38093) Key Requirements For Insurance Claims Systems (38084) Online Insurance Shopping Grows With Online Tenure (37887) The Affluent Are The Most Active Online Investors (37837) The Forrester Wave™ 2005 (36769) The Forrester Wave™: Enterprise Content Management Suites, Q3 2005 (36512) The Forrester Wave™: Enterprise Risk Management Consultants, Q4 2005 (35887) The Forrester Wave™: Security Configuration Management, Q4 2005 (37956) The Forrester Wave™: Security Information Management, Q4 2005 (37244) The Forrester Wave™: Web Design Agencies, Q3 2005 (36045) The Forrester Wave™: WLAN Solutions, Q4 2005 (36286) The Path For Renewing Legacy Insurance Apps (37487) The Secret To E*TRADE's Cross-Sell Success (38141)

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