Mentioning international mutual funds to a bank brokerage customer just five years ago was a risky proposition.
Older customers were not inclined to think globally, and younger investors were scared by the well-publicized problems in a few countries.
"It used to be a way to end an appointment pretty quick," said Peter Oldrid, a Marshfield, Mass., broker for Citizens Financial Services, the brokerage arm of Citizens Financial Group Inc. of Providence, R.I.
Today Mr. Oldrid rarely hesitates to steer customers toward global funds to diversify their investment portfolios.
"The world's getting smaller every day with technology and government policies, and why should we ignore that?" Mr. Oldrid said. "Just about any portfolio that's got a 15- to 20-year time frame should have an international exposure."
Mr. Oldrid is like thousands of other bank brokers who are using such arguments to break down their clients' resistance to global investing.
Bank customers still have a relatively conservative investing bent and tend to be slower to embrace anything but plain-vanilla domestic stock and bond funds.
Short-term fears will continue to be a major obstacle for brokers-after all, "there's a war on," said Joy P. Montgomery, the president of Money Marketing Initiatives in Basking Ridge, N.J.
"The challenge they run up against is that the people they're selling to perceive it to be more risky," she said.
For both investors and fund companies in the long term, "there's great opportunity in international funds overall."
Mr. Oldrid, 35, may be on the leading edge as he continues to be one of the better salespeople for international funds, said a Franklin Resources Inc. executive who works with Citizens Financial.
About 15% of Mr. Oldrid's $2 million of sales in April had an international flavor.
The first step in successful selling is simply to make customers feel comfortable with the notion of overseas investments, Mr. Oldrid said.
When discussing funds, he prefers the term "global" to "international" because it seems to be less threatening to people.
He said he is quick to explain to customers that such funds generally have significant holdings in U.S. companies as well as foreign companies. And investors are often surprised to learn that some companies they associate with the United States are actually based elsewhere.
Nestle, for instance, is a Swiss company. And Dunkin' Donuts, whose stores dot the Northeast, was founded in Massachusetts but is now French- owned.
These examples help dislodge ingrained beliefs that keep investors from diversifying, Mr. Oldrid said.
A key part of Mr. Oldrid's success is acknowledging that he cannot be an expert on every issue affecting foreign markets. His solution is to pick the brains of those in the know-the portfolio managers.
Successful global fund brokers also educate themselves by reading widely on economic trends and global events in newspapers and magazines.
Global fund brokers have no special training or exam requirements, which makes self-directed education important, Mr. Oldrid said.
And he doesn't presume to have a grasp of all the details.
"I really don't pretend to be an international expert by any means," he said.
Older customers are still the most resistant group when it comes to international investing, Mr. Oldrid said, though some are becoming more open to the idea.
Customers from 35 to 55 are most likely to add global funds to their retirement portfolios, Mr. Oldrid said. That is partly because more and more younger customers are changing jobs and rolling over retirement funds, Mr. Oldrid said.
There is certainly room for those investors to diversify: Nine out of 10 of them own no international fund, Mr. Oldrid said.
And if investors hold different funds with similar investment objectives, the funds become redundant, he said. Many growth funds, for instance, hold the same stocks despite having different names.
To these customers, Mr. Oldrid will pitch the rationale for adding global funds.
"I'm going to be the one who directs you to" a global fund, he said. "I make it part of my business."
