22 February 2006
Winterthur Life, pensions and investment specialist, today announces a new client research service as part of its range of Professional Edge consultancy services.
Understanding client needs is an essential part in helping advisers build trust. The new Winterthur Life Client Research Service is designed to help adviser practices find out more about the services their clients want and value the most.
The Service provides adviser practices with essential data taken from customer feedback to help tailor their business offering closer to client needs, and is aimed at firms operating in or seeking to penetrate the wealth market, where clients tend to demand more.
An online client questionnaire is the centrepiece of the Service. As part of the Service clients will be asked to complete the questionnaire through a unique website link – the site is adviser branded. Once logged on, the simple to use survey will take a client no more than 15 minutes to complete.
No personal data is entered and the Service is completely confidential and anonymous to allow open and honest feedback from clients. From the feedback, the Professional Edge team can construct a report of the findings to help adviser practices assess and review their clients’ level of satisfaction. With the FSA expecting firms to point to a formulated Treating Customers Fairly approach, the Service can help advisers measure success and to create a proactive approach to continuous improvement.
David Thompson, director of distribution, Winterthur Life, says, “Successful adviser practices require satisfied customers. High quality customer service is important for any business but critical in the financial services arena where competition and client expectations are continually evolving. The advisers’ understanding of the requirements of their target market is key. This is highly relevant to the future of independent advice in the new depolarised world.
“One consistent theme here is that advisers will need to transact business with clients who are more affluent, have more sophisticated financial planning needs and who value the advice given by an independent financial expert. The Winterthur Life Client Research Service will help advisers identify where their strengths and weaknesses lie, and aid them in building a business that attracts more affluent individuals and evolves to continue to meet their changing needs.”
Michael Daniels, principal at Kingswood Consultants, who took part in the pilot of the service in late 2005, says, “We are very pleased with the service. It has helped us demonstrate Kingwood’s commitment to the needs of our clients and is an endorsement of the high professional and ethical standards that the firm is known for.”
The basic cost of the service is £475. This includes a report of the survey findings; which can also be benchmarked against others participating in the area of services meeting client needs. Additional questions can be bought for £75 per question and support for helping practices promote the findings starts at £175.
Interested advisers should contact the Winterthur Life Adviser Support Team on 0845 129 9993 for more information.
For further information:
Paul Riddell Winterthur Life, Press Office +44 (0)1256 798099
Sandra Fulton Winterthur Life, Press Office +44 (0)1256 798310
Christine Wood Financial Dynamics +44 (0) 207 269 7253
Notes to Editors
About Winterthur Life UK Limited
Winterthur Life UK Limited is part of Winterthur Group, which is part of Credit Suisse Group, a leading global financial services company headquartered in Zurich.
Winterthur Life UK offers pensions and investments for high net worth clients distributed via top tier IFAs and is renowned for its innovative approach to financial products. Its philosophy of transparent product propositions offers advisers a range of retirement and investment solutions with an open charging structure.
Winterthur Life UK is one of the UK’s top 10 providers of single premium personal pensions, trustee investment plans and corporate pensions via IFAs and a leading provider of self-investment retirement plans like Self Invested Personal Pensions (“Sipps”).
Any opinions expressed in this media communication are made as at the date of publication but are subject to change without notice. Past performance is not a guide to the future. The value of shares/units and the income from them can go down as well as up. Exchange rate fluctuations may cause the value of underlying investments to fall as well as rise. Yields are not guaranteed and may fall or rise.
Winterthur Life UK Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.
www.winterthur-ifa.co.uk
Winterthur Group
Winterthur Group is a leading Swiss insurance company with head office in Winterthur. As an international company, the Group provides a broad range of personal, property and casualty insurance products, as well as insurance solutions in life and pensions that are tailored to the individual needs of private and corporate clients. Winterthur Group has approximately 19,500 employees worldwide. The company achieved a total business volume of CHF 22.9 billion in the first nine months of 2005 and reported assets under management of CHF 152.9 billion as of September 30, 2005.
Credit Suisse Group
Credit Suisse Group is a leading global financial services company headquartered in Zurich. Credit Suisse, the banking business of Credit Suisse Group, provides its clients with investment banking, private banking and asset management services worldwide. Credit Suisse offers advisory services, comprehensive solutions and innovative products to companies, institutional clients and high-net-worth private clients globally, as well as retail clients in Switzerland. Credit Suisse Group also includes Winterthur, a Swiss general insurer with a focus on international business activities. Credit Suisse Group is active in over 50 countries and employs approximately 60,000 people. Credit Suisse Group’s registered shares (CSGN) are listed in Switzerland and, in the form of American Depositary Shares (CSR), in New York. Further information about Credit Suisse Group and Credit Suisse can be found at www.credit-suisse.com. Further information about Winterthur can be found at www.winterthur.com.
Cautionary statement regarding forward-looking information
This press release contains statements that constitute forward-looking statements. In addition, in the future we, and others on our behalf, may make statements that constitute forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements may include, without limitation, statements relating to our plans, objectives or goals; our future economic performance or prospects; the potential effect on our future performance of certain contingencies; and assumptions underlying any such statements.
Words such as “believes,” “anticipates,” “expects,” "intends” and “plans” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements but are not the exclusive means of identifying such statements. We do not intend to update these forward-looking statements except as may be required by applicable laws.
By their very nature, forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties, both general and specific, and risks exist that predictions, forecasts, projections and other outcomes described or implied in forward-looking statements will not be achieved. We caution you that a number of important factors could cause results to differ materially from the plans, objectives, expectations, estimates and intentions expressed in such forward-looking statements. These factors include (i) market and interest rate fluctuations; (ii) the strength of the global economy in general and the strength of the economies of the countries in which we conduct our operations in particular; (iii) the ability of counterparties to meet their obligations to us; (iv) the effects of, and changes in, fiscal, monetary, trade and tax policies, and currency fluctuations; (v) political and social developments, including war, civil unrest or terrorist activity; (vi) the possibility of foreign exchange controls, expropriation, nationalization or confiscation of assets in countries in which we conduct our operations; (vii) the ability to maintain sufficient liquidity and access capital markets; (viii) operational factors such as systems failure, human error, or the failure to properly implement procedures; (ix) actions taken by regulators with respect to our business and practices in one or more of the countries in which we conduct our operations; (x) the effects of changes in laws, regulations or accounting policies or practices; (xi) competition in geographic and business areas in which we conduct our operations; (xii) the ability to retain and recruit qualified personnel; (xiii) the ability to maintain our reputation and promote our brands; (xiv) the ability to increase market share and control expenses; (xv) technological changes; (xvi) the timely development and acceptance of our new products and services and the perceived overall value of these products and services by users; (xvii) acquisitions, including the ability to integrate successfully acquired businesses; (xviii) the adverse resolution of litigation and other contingencies; and (xix) our success at managing the risks involved in the foregoing.
We caution you that the foregoing list of important factors is not exclusive; when evaluating forward-looking statements, you should carefully consider the foregoing factors and other uncertainties and events, as well as the risks identified in Credit Suisse Group’s most recently filed Form 20-F and reports on Form 6-K furnished to the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Cautionary statement regarding non-GAAP financial information
This press release contains non-GAAP financial information. A reconciliation of such non-GAAP financial information to the most directly comparable measures under generally accepted accounting principles, is posted on our website at http://www.credit-suisse.com/sec.html.
