A Little Bit About Trust...KeneXsus Style!

I recently read the book by Marcus Buckingham called “Stand Out”.  I originally wanted to read this book because I felt a compelling drive to build KeneXsus.  I knew it was the right move.  I knew it was what I was “Built” to do.  But, I struggled to pin point exactly what was driving me to continue building this thing called KeneXsus.

Have you ever had the innate feeling, deep inside, that you were supposed to be doing whatever it was you were doing or working on?  Maybe it was that fire that was driving you toward some goal change, career change or educational endeavor.  I have had this feeling, and I wanted to be able to articulate it to our members.  As a side note, this book is great at identifying your strengths and breaking down their components.  It is also incredible at keeping you accountable and aware of your weaknesses.

So, I found out I am a teacher and that I enjoy gathering knowledge and sharing it with others in ways they can identify with and learn from.  The thrill for me is in the giving of knowledge not the gathering or selling of it.  As it turns out, I am also a deeply genuine and trustworthy person.  I realized that this is why working in the banking and financial industries for the last 19 years have felt so incongruent…Ha.

To that end I apparently, subconsciously, decided to create something that covered all three areas I was not fulfilling through my current work.  The first was creating congruence with my own systems, beliefs and what was right.  The second was creating something I felt people could trust, something that had more of a vested interest in teaching them something than selling them something.  This makes perfect sense as the major difference between teaching and selling, is its genuineness!

Another area I thrive in is the area of examination.  I enjoy breaking down, for instance, a complex process or theory into its discrete parts and then showing others how these parts work.  This also made sense in the development of our Interactive Video Lessons or IVL’s.  In that spirit, I want to tell you all about a lovely rule called the “Push Out” rule.

So, what does this mean?  Simply put, it is a bank or financial institutions ability to take depositors money (your deposit's into checking and savings) and then push it out into the market, or use it, to make risky investments like credit derivatives as an example.  These are the lovely little products that many correlate as being the catalyst for the housing and financial collapse in 2008 and 2009.  Of which, we are still recovering.  I happen to agree 100%! 

Recently, a lobbyist firm drafted a bill (yes you heard me correctly, a lobbyist drafted the bill) to once again allow this practice.  This would of course be undermining the newest legislation called the Dodd-Frank Bill, which had banned this practice.  The amazing part of all of this is that the politician who ended up sponsoring the bill never changed a word (actually just a few for pluralism coverage) and moved in to a vote and subsequent passage into law.

We are by no means saying that all banks, lobbyists or politicians are bad.  But, these types of behaviors certainly pose an ethical dilemma and place the public's trust and our money at great peril.  Another point to be made is that banks and financial institutions are only playing by the rules that they are given. What we are saying is that we should be more cautious about the rules we draft and vote into law so as to ensure they are prudent and work to ensure public trust.  By providing our members this knowledge, we hope to bring fourth more accountability and more effective laws and regulations to protect your money.

So, financial organizations and institutions can once again use YOUR money to make risky investments (derivatives).  They can then access public funds (Like FDIC Insurance) when those investments go bad or experience losses as a result of the same risky investments that they made with your money!  You may remember the savings and loan crash in the late 80's.  Risking depositors money was also the root of that collapse.  I have to wonder how many times, as a society, we are going to be okay with allowing this great risk to occur in our financial markets, institutions and our money.

First, lobbyists should not be drafting legislative bills to be passed into laws.  This is especially true if a politician, who we elect and pay, is never going to bother to read the thing.  What about a financial lobbyist drafting a bill to amend financial legislation, am I the only one who sees this as a problem?

Finally, why would anyone on earth want to allow a financial institution to risk our money, none of their own mind you, to make risky investments for only their benefit?  Granted all investments have risk, but unnecessary risks like these are simple unnecessary.  When the dust settles, no problem, if you screwed it all up you can use more of our money to replace it (via the FDIC)!  I honestly want to bang my head against the wall sometimes when I read this stuff.  Seriously people, how long are we going to allow this sort of thing to go on?

I sincerely hope not long, for the sake of my young daughter, my fellow citizens and my friends.  Promise me you will do one thing during the Holiday Season; follow KeneXsus, like KeneXsus or do whatever it is you like to do with social media.  But please, use our site to learn about these things, rules and products.  These are the things we are trying to change through accountability and transparency.  We cannot attain this goal if we all do not take a stand and work in concert to STOP – BAD - BEHAVIOR!

Together we can make a difference and protect our financial future and the future of the next generations.  We hope you all have a great Holiday Season and enjoy the new site coming on line shortly!

Cheers,

The KeneXsus Team…

Why Commission Stinks when Obtaining Financial Products!

October 14th, 2012

Why Commission Stinks when Obtaining Financial Products!

The financial industry, from investments and insurance to mortgage and lending, has always relied heavily on agents or employees being structured as commissioned employees.  You might be asking yourself what this has to do with you and why it is important?

I personally have spent nearly twenty years in this industry and have had the opportunity to work in these commissioned environments.  I have built my own mortgage-banking firm, twice, in addition to working for independent companies, wholesale lenders to large and small community banks.  One common theme continually keeps coming to fruition.  One theme or truth, that continuously arises, is a direct result of the income structures these organizations employ (and other organizations in investments and insurance).  These practices are deeply flawed for many reasons.

Let me explain what I have learned through these experiences.  First, let me show you a working – successful - model of what this income stream or structure looks like.

Example 1: Commission Pay Flow Chart:

More business = more income and pay = employees meeting fundamental survival needs = more profit for an organization

You might be asking yourself what the problem is with this, because I did too.  It wasn’t until I factored in ALL the variables that I realized some fundamental problems.  Now, I am a fan of paying employees for production.   I am also a fan of paying employees on the results of their hard work including high customer service scores.  This is where it gets interesting.

Most employees in the financial industries sector - at least in sales - are not provided a living wage or base salary to support their families or selves.  Now, most companies will refute this statement.  However, in doing so, they leave out one key fact.  This fact is, that while companies who claim to provide this “living wage” do so in the form of a draw.  In almost all cases this draw, or living wage as it is many times called, is recoverable upon future commissions earned by an employee.  This means that the “living wage” is merely a way to avoid many loan officer pay rules or labor laws.  It is in essence a way to avoid the governance of employee pay.

So, having looked at this for a moment, lets now look at a working – unsuccessful – model of what this income stream or structure looks like and the impacts on you the consumer.

Example 2: Commission Pay Flow Chart:

> More time with a customer educating them appropriately =
> Less overall transactions (sales) =
> Less money and ultimately less profits for the financial entity =
> Less profit for share holders =

NET RESULT

> Less commissions for sales people (employees) =
> Inability to pay their bills when educating customers appropriately
(less income from sales compounded by no base income support) =
> Disengaged or actively disengaged employees =
> Customer experiences on the decline =
> A long term sustained loss of customers and revenue

Now, I am not saying that the mortgage and financial crisis of 2008 and 2009 are solely a result of this income structure.  What I am saying is that when an employee has no support through a living wage, they are forced to transact as much business as possible in order to meet their fundamental physiological and safety needs under Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.  The lack of this practice places that employee in a quandary.  It forces them to choose between spending the appropriate time with a customer educating them on the financial products they seek and providing for themselves and their families.

As a business owner, this creates a massive problem.  If you look at the year over year results of the Gallup Q12 survey results (a measure of employee happiness with their job and work), you will see the high percentage of employees who are disengaged or actively disengaged.  This practice is rooted in the Gallup results which state that today 71% of the workforce suffers from disengagement or active disengagement.

I have also spent years in my undergraduate and graduate work at Doane College exploring this exact subject.  Through my own research (and my business experience) I have corroborated the Gallup findings regarding employee happiness factors and engagement.  Additionally, You can read the research here under Matt Fuller’s e-portfolio.

At KeneXsus, our mission is to help you become educated about the financial products you obtain independent from someone who may be forced to choose between doing so and feeding their families.  It is unfortunate that the business community and the public have come to this cross roads, but it is a reality a consumer today must face.  So, take charge of your financial education and future today by utilizing the KeneXsus approach.

The KeneXsus Team

The Importance of Understanding Financial Products!

The Importance of Understanding Financial Products!

You might be asking yourself why the KeneXsus IVL’s (Interactive Video Lessons) matter and are the difference maker in what we do versus other companies who imitate our program and approach.

Our IVL’s break down all the things you always wanted to know about financial products from how they work to the associated charges and fees.  We do this in an unconventional way by explaining them at their lowest common denominator and in an easy to understand format.  Our members can then use this knowledge before they go and obtain a financial, insurance, mortgage or bank products.  This may seem insignificant but lets look at one exact example of its importance.

In our mortgage IVL section we break down lots of things but one portion in particular walks members through the various types of lenders in the marketplace.  During these lessons we walk members through how each of these lenders are compensated.  Through a move as simple as choosing and comparing one lender versus another through our approach you could save between $300 and $500 on your next mortgage loan.

We reveal many other money saving tips and tricks to financial products in our IVL lessons.  This is a small glimpse at the education we provide and why it can benefit you and save you money.  We believe this is the one approach no one is trying to provide, a means to create real meaningful changes in your personal financial life. 

We decided on this approach because no one else was utilizing it.  Many companies provide lists of ratings, which are helpful, but the real change comes from going a step further and combining ratings while educating the public so permanent change can occur.  A similar saying goes, catch fish and feed an individual, but teach that individual to fish and feed an entire village!

One final point is what sets KeneXsus apart from other free sites that provide ratings.  The first issue is that most only focus on the negatives instead of also encouraging its members to point out the positives.  The second point is that they do not (in the majority of cases) provide any sort of education.  Finally, free sites can be gamed by its users.  This means that companies can log in and create false rankings because the ratings are not verified.  The problem here is that you are being handed a false sense of value of any ranking or rating you may be viewing. 

We certify our rankings are coming from the public, our members, and not stacked by agents or companies who you may rate.  Here is a link http://www.kenexsus.com/index.html to our site so you can watch some great introductory videos that will speak more in depth about what we do at KeneXsus everyday.  Here is another additional link http://www.kenexsus.com/kenexsus-mission.html with more in depth knowledge about us should you want to learn a little more.  Make sure to contact us soon (just send an email to administrator@kenexsus.com with your name and email) about joining our BETA launch, as we are only 3 weeks away.  Thank you all for your support and your feedback, keep it coming!

 The KeneXsus Team        

Creating Business Accountability and Transparency…The Case for Social Media

“It is a new world and a new society in which social activists, sophisticated and experienced, are demanding that companies exhibit new forms of behavior’” states Heather Pavitt in a paper published in 2012 (Pavitt H., 2012)

She goes on to state, “People have an expectation that organizations must be accountable for all of their business practices that may impact others.” (Pavitt H., 2012)

Research has shown that businesses are more transparent and accountable than ever before, but why?  Because the power is now in the hands of the consumer to call for action when they observe serious improprieties and incongruence.  Below is a link to one of our co-founders, Matt Fuller’s e-portfolio site.  Matt Fuller has recently completed a research project examining just how impactful social media has become.

What has been discovered is that data and analytics are allowing businesses to better track purchasing patterns and execute targeted marketing.  The argument now emerging involves data consumption, how to secure it and the complications disseminating the analytics into useful metrics with measureable business improvements.

So much data is infiltrating company walls that companies are struggling with dissecting it into useful metrics while it is still relevant.  While these efforts can be beneficial to consumers and stakeholders, it can also be dangerous if not protected adequately.

While metric targeted marketing is assisting companies in being profit efficient, it has also proliferated ratings through social media and in return placed the power back into the hands of the consumers and the public.  Such was the case with BP in the Gulf Oil Spill in 2010, where they were caught manipulating photos of the oil spill undermining public trust and providing serious incongruence between their mission and values and their actions. (Pavitt H., 2012) 

There are many cases and research to support the fact that social media is helping the public have a voice.  This is a similar mission we strive for at KeneXsus, only we are focused on financial transactions.  We believe in assisting and educating the public about complex financial products before obtaining them, while in return giving them the opportunity to share those experiences.  To share them with other constituents and the public along with the companies they do business with.

So why should we share good and bad business experiences?  We must first understand that businesses are profit centers that operate under one common rule, to make a profit for their owners and shareholders.  This certainly does not mean they get a free pass to pursue profits at the expense of the consumer or their stakeholders.  But, if no one were holding them accountable, then why would they change?  It is up to each of us to talk about good and bad experiences because we help each other avoid being taken advantage of.  Moreover, we assist the companies “doing it right” to be graced with our business and the ones who are not, to be more accountable.  In the end, we can collectively assist these businesses in changing bad behaviors while being more accountable and congruent with their mission and values.

Research shows us that social media does have a positive impact on transparency and accountability.  Social media, similar to our KeneXware rating system, may change behaviors but it may simply prevent bad ones from occurring.  Either option is a win for the consumer and a win for the businesses who are playing fair and responsibly.  Subsequently, any company behaving badly is just not going to last given the plethora of social network options for ratings and rankings.  This in turn, creates business accountability and transparency.

Please click this link Consumers Influence on Business to read the entire body of research and learn more about this topic.  The research presented is compelling and is a good read for anyone, especially those exploring social media strategic planning.  The paper also cites several resources that break down simple plans to create winning social media strategies.  Oh yes, two things, please like our FB Page and subscribe to our blog as we continue our mission to bring you relevant educational information about the products and people you do business with everyday.

The KeneXsus Team

References

Pavitt, H. (2012). No Place to Hide: New technological advances in Web 2.0 and Social Media may force organizations to improve their corporate social responsibility. Social Alternatives, 31(2), 22-26.

Protecting your Identity and the Case for Privacy 

Recently, we have found several sites that allow public access to your personal information.  This may come as a shocker to some, but those of us who have spent time in the financial industry realize this is normal.  The trend for collecting analytics is growing exponentially.  It is time to take action and protect yourself, your family and your friends.

Our recent research, and subsequent discovery, has raised our level of concerns about consumers privacy.  So we thought what a great post to circulate among our members and readers.  

We discovered a website (not new) called Spokeo found at www.spokeo.com.  Yet have we found a website which can grant access publicly to an individuals personal information so easily and with very little effort.  For a small price the public can also access much more personal, financial and credit information about you and or your family.

So, it has become even more important to pay attention to these companies as they progress.  In keeping with our mission of financial education and rankings, we are showing you here how to protect yourself from this companies ability to access your personal information.  


This website is compiling data about each of us.  It gathers and displays (through a simple name search on their site) your full name, all the places you have lived, your kids names, ages, other family, emails and phone numbers, household incomes, a picture of your home + GPS map.  It also allows people to pay a small fee (typically less than $5.00) to obtain background checks, credit info, your posts to social media among many other private things.

I searched myself and found this site is very accurate, so take this seriously!  If you could, forward this to ALL teammates, friends and family so they can get themselves and others removed from the site.  Many sites etc. track us, but I have yet to come across one that is this accurate and compiles this much data in one concise place.  

Here are directions for removal:

1)      Go to www.spokeo.com
2)      Search your name (or anyone you want to remove)
3)      Once your listing comes up highlight and copy the website URL (it will be specific to you and your profile) from the address bar of your web browser i.e. internet explorer, safari, google chrome etc. (you will need this in the next step)

Example: www.spokeo.com/mattfuller/listing (highlighted) --> right click --> copy

4)      Scroll to the bottom of the page and click “Privacy”
5)      At the bottom, click on the “Opt Out” form to remove yourself
6)      Type in your current email and then right click --> paste in the next box to paste your profile URL (The one you copied on the previous step)
7)      Submit, you will now be removed.
8)      Finally, you will get an email asking you to confirm your removal.  Follow the link in your email to remove yourself.

Stay tuned to our blog as we continually post helpful information on this topic and many many others.  Also, feel free to email us anytime with questions or concerns.

KeneXsus Owners & Staff