WASHINGTON: Despite an increased budget, the second installment of the Your Money Tour, which will travel nationwide offering financial education and advice to consumers starting October 1, will be smaller in scope this year in order to be larger in its reach.
The National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA) Consumer Education Foundation has once again teamed with Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine and TD Ameritrade for the tour. In addition, this year the financial community forum, FiLife.com, a partnership between Dow Jones and Internet company IAC, has also joined in, providing online pre-registration services for consumers and helping consumers prepare for their meetings with financial planners.
PRWeek reported on last year's tour, which visited more than 60 cities, spreading financial advice to consumers through one-on-one counseling, symposia, and other events. According to Kevin McCormally, editorial director of Kiplinger's Washington editors, the addition of FiLife.com, as well as other factors, added to its budget for the event this year. But it still decided to visit only 25 cities in order to spend more time at each stop. This will help the organizations serve more people and help the PR effort, which is still being handled by Perception PR and The Rosen Group.
"It's more time to make sure the local papers know what's going on," said McCormally.
Moreover, there are plans to conduct consumer surveys at some of the stops, which will be used in the media outreach effort at the following stops.
One of the biggest differences between this year and last is the state of the economy. "People are much more sanguine" this year, McCormally said. He added that he thinks this year many consumers will have questions "about how to deploy that cash that has been sitting on the sidelines."
"People were terrified last year," he added. "A lot of people lost their jobs and there are probably still a lot of questions about handling finances during unemployment."
