Scudder, Stevens & Clark Inc. is going after high-end investors on two different tracks: its own direct sales efforts and through banks and other financial "intermediaries."
The Boston-based mutual fund company announced last week the hiring of two executives to direct the disparate efforts.
It appointed William M. Thomas as vice president and senior business manager of a new unit, the financial intermediary services group, formed to step up sales through one of Scudder's traditional channels-bank brokerages and trust departments.
And it named William S. Baughman principal and director of a newly formed group that is to prime the pump of Scudder's biggest accounts. The as-yet unnamed group will provide financial planning, advice on Scudder funds, and discount brokerage services for customers who have more than $100,000 in accounts with the firm but are not looking for face-to-face contact.
"Bill Baughman will work with people who are quite comfortable with dealing with someone over the phone," said Scudder managing director Mark S. Casady. "Our clients have grown more affluent with us and now have a need for greater services than what we provided before."
The financial intermediary group will look to pick up customers of other firms who want local, high-touch service.
Such an effort "reaches a market we (otherwise) might not reach. For instance, my parents are more comfortable talking to their broker," Mr. Casady said. "We traditionally have not gone after the kinds of clients that need the kind of help that brokers and bankers provide."
Using both strategies is not unusual for mutual fund companies. Fidelity Investments has an asset management and trust division to work for its own wealthy clients as well as a bank services group, which sells the Fidelity Advisors fund family through bank trust departments. Executives there refer to "coopetition" between the two.
Using both strategies is "a hedge," said Norman R. Lubin, chief executive of FMS Group Inc., a consulting firm in Blue Bell, Pa.
"Working with existing affluent clients provides a short-term revenue opportunity," Mr. Lubin added. To sell through other institutions "is strategic over the long term because you've got to be in that market."
Others agree that money managers should devise several ways to gain market share at a time when investors are making and inheriting more money than ever before.
"If you don't go on both tracks you lose your opportunity to get a position with the emerging affluent," said David Ross Palmer, a former Merrill Lynch executive who consults private banks.
Mr. Baughman, most recently Charles Schwab & Co.'s senior vice president for strategic marketing, also worked in private banking at Bankers Trust New York Corp. and in retail marketing for Fidelity.
Mr. Thomas joins Scudder from Russell Fund Distributors, where as national sales manager he did external marketing for State Street Boston Corp.'s proprietary SSgA Funds.
