Marie Swift is Principal of Impact Communications, a full-service marketing communications firm serving a select group of independent financial advisors, industry thought-leaders and allied institutions. Impact Communications has two service lines – one for independent advisory firms and one for the institutions that support them.

 

Institutions such as Securities America, the Garrett Planning Network, Kinder Institute of Life Planning, AdvisorMax and Schwab Institutional have partnered with Impact to create new and innovative programs for their registered representatives and affiliated advisors.

 

Her firm has represented industry influentials such as Geoff Davey, Barbara Culver, Rick Ferri, Mark Magnacca, George Kinder, Sheryl Garrett, Susan Bradley,  Norman Boone, Kirk Hulett, Deborah Price and Julie Littlechild.

 

The firm conducted a multi-year national publicity push for TAMP-alternative FocusPoint Solutions, helped launch and still promotes the internationally-acclaimed Garrett Planning Network, is a advisor and PR resource for Sarano Kelley International, and is pushing the PR agenda for Smart401k.

 

Associations and book authors also seek counsel and PR related services from Swift's firm. Examples of multi-author book promotions include The Wealth Counsel LLC and the Garrett Planning Network. Examples of single book author promotions include work with best selling author Lee Eisenberg and publishing company Free Press (The Number: a Completely Different Way to Think about the Rest of Your Life) and Mark Magnacca (So What? How to Communicate What Really Matters to Your Audience).

 

Swift and her firm have also provided consulting advice and positioning services for budding speakers / book authors such as Ed Jacobson (creator of the Appreciative Financial Planning process and author of Appreciative Moments), David Drucker (practice management guru and author of several books) and Susan Turnbull (creator of ethical will workbook The Wealth of Your Life), and Rick Ferri (5 time book author and low-cost investment guru).

 

A popular speaker at industry events, including multiple appearances at FPA national and regional events, NAPFA, Lockwood University and the NFL Players Association (Financial Advisor Program), Swift is the co-author of Just Give Me the Answer$: Expert Advisors Address Your Most Pressing Financial Questions (Dearborn 2004). She contributed the marketing chapter to Garrett’s Guide to Financial Planning (National Underwriter Company, 2002 and 2007).

 

A columnist for Morningstar Advisor, Research and Financial Planning magazines, industry expert David Drucker calls her a “PR consultant extraordinaire” and featured her firm in “Raising Perceptions,” an article published by Research magazine about the benefits of public relations and credibility marketing. She has also served as a Coach and Subject Matter Expert for AdvisorMax, an online resource for financial advisors, and is a member of Tiburon Strategic Advisors' consulting fellows program.

 

She is actively involved as a Founding Partner with the International Association of Financial, Sport and Celebrity Advisers and is serving on a pro-bono basis as PR and brand management consultant to celebrity Willie Aames.

 

Hailed as “a Marketing Guru” by the editors at Investment Advisor magazine, she’s been working with advisors and allied institutions, helping them make better marketing communications and business decisions since 1988. After observing her work for many years, Bob Veres, publisher of Inside Information, has said that Marie “is perhaps one of the best PR consultants in the business today.”

 

In May 2009, the firm will unveil its Media Mastery Program, a virtual training and coaching service for groups of like-minded advisors. Beginning this fall, Impact will offer live Media Mastery boot camps in conjunction with industry conferences such as FPA National (October 2009) and T3 Technology Conference (February 2010).

 

Advisors, associations and institutions who are interested in establishing a private client relationship are encouraged to visit the Web site for details on the firm’s comprehensive marketing and PR service line and to call early in case there is a waiting list to become a client – something that is not unusual for Marie and her firm.