SHORT INTERESTS: TIPS, TRENDS, OBSERVATIONS

Ay, there’s the rub

First came the massage therapists. They told companies the bottom line would improve if employees were more relaxed and thus more efficient. Now, it’s the financial adviser’s turn.

A group of companies are introducing this week an organization that will attempt to quantify how much companies would save if they provide financial planning education to employees. The organization, National Institute of Personal Finance Employee Education, comprises American Express Financial Advisors, Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., TIAA-Cref and Genus Credit, which helps people with credit troubles.

Doing the research is Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va., which has already determined that companies could save $400 an employee, says the organization’s chairman, AmEx adviser Steve Herrmann. He says 15% of employees have some kind of “financial event” – from personal bankruptcy to house closings – that takes up time at the workplace. The theory is that better control over their finances would keep them focused on the job.

The plums of Roth

As if you didn’t already know it, the Roth individual retirement account owner looks like the client to target.

A study by the Investment Company Institute shows that buyers of Roths are younger and make more money than holders of either conventional or company-sponsored IRAs, and their household assets, at $97,100, are in the ballpark with the others at $100,000 and $107,800, respectively.

Not to mention that 22% of them used independent financial planners to set up their IRAs, as opposed to only 18% of conventional IRA investors. Most conventional IRAers opened theirs at banks (44%) or full-service brokerages (33%), while Roth investors gave brokers 40% of their business, with 27% of total accounts going to the full-service guys and 13% to discounters. Only 21% of Roth owners used banks and the same percentage bought from mutual fund companies, although 71% of the group hold mutual funds in their IRAs. The remaining 13% bought from insurance companies.

Nearly a third of Rothites converted from conventional IRAs, meaning that two-thirds of them are probably fresh blood, as new investors sometimes are called.

Get ’em early

Money in the bank! Stein Roe Mutual Funds has awarded nine business-savvy fifth-, sixth- and seventh-graders a total of $25,500 in Stein Roe Young Investor Funds shares. The pupils struck it big with essays on the importance of money and investing. Winners from each grade level were hand-picked from more than 2,200 entries.

Each first-place finisher received $5,000 in Young Investor fund shares. Second place was worth $2,500 in shares, third place $1,000.

The shares will be deposited into a new or already established custodial account. Contestants were asked to describe in 250 words or less, “How would you save enough money to open your own company and what would it be?” Finishing first were Catherine Hobson of Mesa, Ariz., Thomas O’Donnell of Lansdale, Pa., and Jenna Skophammer of Fort Dodge, Iowa.