Shopping Centers Today is the news magazine of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)
Issue link: https://sct.epubxp.com/i/109754
R E T A I L I N G T O D A Y Financial planners move into centers By Ben Johnson FINANCIAL-SERVICES FIRMS ARE NOT exclusively for the wealthy, the economically sophisticated, or the entrepreneurial. In fact, almost as if to prove the point, and in an effort to attract mainstream Americans, increasing numbers of them are setting up shop in that most plebeian of modern-day institutions: the shopping center. America's Retirement Store, for one, opened its first such unit in February, at The Promenade Shops at Centerra, a lifestyle center developed by Poag & McEwen in Loveland, Colo. America's Retirement Store is a subsidiary of Presidential Brokerage, an advisory firm that has been offering traditional financial services for the past 20 years. Presidential is targeting small-business owners and professionals with investment portfolios worth between $250,000 and $1 million and concentrating on the everyday folk who comprise an underserved market, according to CEO John DuPriest. "The major firms are mainly looking for clients in the top three or five income percentiles," DuPriest said. "We think 30 SCT / M A R C H 2 0 1 3 there are opportunities 30 or 40 percentiles below that." Fulltime employees operate America's Retirement Store, and joining them periodically are Presidential Brokerage representatives licensed to sell investment products. Visitors receive materials and view presentations on investing, Social Security, estate planning and similar topics. One IRA presentation last year drew about 600 people. Many traditional financial planners may decry what they see as the commoditization of their industry, but major firms are entering shopping centers nonetheless. Charles Schwab operates two mall-based stores: one at Front Range Village, in Fort Collins, Colo.; and the other at Clay Terrace, in Indianapolis. And Edward Jones has three: at The Avenue Webb Gin, outside Atlanta; at Wolf Ranch Town Center, in Georgetown, Texas; and at The Shops at La Cantera, in San Antonio. Typically, financial advisers operate in more-traditional office spaces or in smaller strip centers. But as competition heats up to serve those baby boomers who are now at retirement age or are quickly approaching it, planners are testing new ways to reach them. Today there are about 200,000 personal financial advisers in the U.S., according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And job growth in that sector is expected to grow by 32 percent from 2010 to 2020, more than twice as fast as the 14 percent projected growth for all occupations combined. Then, too, malls are places where people happen to be in a fairly upbeat mood and are there to buy things. For that reason, they may be the very best places for these financial-advisory firms to build brand awareness and expand their clientele, observers say. "They are not only recruiting and retaining customers," said John Bemis, executive vice president of retail in the Atlanta office of Jones Lang LaSalle, "they are also raising the profile of a customer base that may not be paying attention to financial-planning commercials." SCT