American Express 2001 Annual Report Download - page 24

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highest chance of success. At the same time, we strengthened our relationship
with our branded independent contractor advisors. In fact, the retention rate
for veteran advisors reached an all-time high in 2001, and we currently have
more than 700 candidates in our pre-appointment pipeline.
We continue to invest considerably in developing tools and training for
our advisors to bolster their ability to offer solid advice and state-of-the-
art financial plans. The payoff for us is significant. During 2001, nearly
44 percent of new clients had a financial plan that we developed with them.
As has been the case historically, our clients with plans tend to buy more
products. In 2001, product sales generated through financial planning and
advice services were 73 percent of total sales, compared with 68 percent dur-
ing the prior year.
❚GROWING OUR CLIENT BASE: To gain a larger percentage of affluent con-
sumers as clients, we developed American Express Platinum Financial
ServicesSM. Through this program, clients receive a variety of premier serv-
ices, including a Platinum Card, concierge services, financial planning and
advice, banking, investment, insurance and trust services — with one of our
advisors acting as an overall relationship manager. We saw strong results from
initial tests of the service in 2001, with clients who enrolled investing an aver-
age of $250,000 in new money with AEFA. Based on this success, we will
begin a national rollout this year.
In addition, we will continue to focus on cross-selling AEFA’s products and
services to our cardmember base. In recent years, more than 30 percent of
new advisor clients have come from our base of U.S. cardmembers. We can
and will do more to significantly increase the number of cardmembers who
have a relationship with AEFA. With appropriate segmentation and targeted
axp_22
We are re:focusingour efforts
to deliver world-class asset management services.
American Express Platinum
Financial Services — a new offer-
ing targeted to affluent clients —
provides a variety of personalized,
premium products and services,
such as advice on tax-advantaged
investing, estate planning, trusts
and charitable giving, as well a
fee-waived Platinum Card.