One of the oldest money management firms has hopped on the Twitter bandwagon. Lord Abbett, the 80-year-old Jersey City-based firm is now on the popular microblogging site (see twitter.com/lordabbett) and it has also unveiled a new advisor-centric Web site.

"We knew that we needed to rebuild the advisor portion of our website and did a lot of research prior to developing the site to determine how advisors use the web, what tools they find helpful, and how we can create a website that is very simple, intuitive, and easy to use," Mike Weldon, partner and director of marketing, told The MFWire.

To enhance the website's appeal, Lord Abbett held one-on-one interviews with 25 advisors spanning the wirehouse, regional, independent, and RIA channels.

"We wanted to understand what advisors were looking for in an 'ideal site,' and determined that asset managers want information that is both streamlined and accessible," said Steve Reilly, a director at the firm. "Many of the advisors said that information could be tough to find on our competitors' websites. On ours, information is now only one or two clicks away."

While Lord Abbett's internal technology team built the back-end of the site, the company called upon design shop HNW (High New Worth) to assist with its design strategy.

Features of the new website include accessible product information, a Morningstar portfolio analyzer tool, video and audio content, and the Lord Abbett Advisor Intelligence tool, which won the 2009 CIO Magazine �CIO 100� Award for operational and strategic excellence in information technology.

Down the road, the company plans to delve deeper into social media territory and is exploring potential initiatives within Facebook, Youtube, and LinkedIn, to name a few.

Company Press Release

LORD ABBETT LAUNCHES NEW FINANCIAL ADVISOR WEBSITE

--Easy-to-use portal offers enhanced interactive resources to help advisors grow business--

Jersey City, NJ � November 19, 2009 � Lord, Abbett & Co. LLC (�Lord Abbett�), an independent, privately held investment management firm, announced the launch of its new Website for financial advisors (www.lordabbett.com/advisor). This advisor portal offers easy access to the firm's award-winning interactive tools and content across three key areas: investment solutions, market insights, and practice management. Designed with the advisor in mind, the new Website offers a full range of resources that can help advisors build and grow their business.

The site provides an extensive array of enhancements to existing content, new easy-to-use features, interactive and business-building tools, and the firm�s first foray into social media with a presence on Twitter (www.twitter.com/lordabbett). �Advisors have always relied on our regional sales managers, internal consultants, and portfolio specialists for their expertise and insight. This new Website provides a simple way for advisors to access many additional resources anytime they are needed,� said Mike Weldon, Lord Abbett Partner & Director of Marketing, �and brings our role as �advisor to the advisor� to another level.�

Earlier this year, the firm conducted one-on-one interviews with a range of advisors across all channels�wirehouse, regional, independent, and RIA�to determine which features advisors wanted most in an asset manager site. "We wanted to understand what advisors were looking for in an �ideal site,� and we set out to build that," said Weldon. "Their valuable input served as the building blocks for the structure, content, and interface of this new site."

Key features and highlights include:

Investment Solutions

 Easy-to-access product information: "One-click" homepage access to all critical product-related data, including a useful "Fund Watch" feature. "This information was consistently cited by advisors as the primary reason for visiting an asset manager site," said Weldon.

 Morningstar hypothetical and portfolio analyzer tools: Not limited to only Lord Abbett funds, advisors can include any open-ended mutual funds in their analyses and hypothetical illustrations.

Market Insights

 Extensive audio and video content: Advisors can follow Senior Economist and Market Strategist Milton Ezrati, Fixed Income Strategist Zane Brown, as well as portfolio managers, retirement specialists, and other Lord Abbett experts on www.twitter.com/lordabbett. A series of five different video programs also were created to feature Lord Abbett's frequent and insightful market commentary on the economy, markets, investments, and retirement. A new RSS feed will allow advisors to have this information automatically "pushed" to their e-mail or personal homepage. In addition, Ezrati will now offer his weekly Economic Insights via audio podcast and will be featured on video as well. "Our market commentary has always had a tremendous following among financial advisors. Now, it will be even easier to follow and find," said Weldon.

 Lord Abbett Exchange enhancements: Celebrating its sixth anniversary, Lord Abbett Exchange is the firm�s program of interactive advisor-training �Webinars� and conference calls. The new Website will offer more robust calendar and sign-up features for these programs, as well as easier access to event replays.

Practice Management

 Lord Abbett Advisor Intelligence: A data-mining and prospecting tool to help advisors enhance their business through new and existing client relationships, Advisor Intelligence was a 2009 recipient of the CIO Magazine �CIO 100� Award, which recognizes organizations around the world that exemplify the highest level of operational and strategic excellence in information technology.

Business-building ideas: Features Lord Abbett's proprietary practice management content and aggregates the "best-ideas" from leading publications and experts from across the industry.

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