Business Unit News
SmartMoney Launches LifePlan, Free Online Tool for Organizing and Managing Your Financial Life
April Issue to Feature Unique, LifePlan-themed Four-Tabbed Cover
NEW YORK, March 9, 2010 – SmartMoney, the personal finance
magazine from The Wall Street Journal, has launched a free online service called
LifePlan (www.smartmoney.com/lifeplan)
to help consumers take control of and actively manage their financial lives.
The new tool will provide personalized guidance, worksheets, calculators and
action items in four key "pillars" -- investments, health care, real estate and
legacy issues -- supported by ongoing LifePlan-related articles in the magazine
over the next year. The April issue (on newsstands March 16) will feature four
LifePlan-related covers, in a unique tabbed design, each corresponding to one of
the four pillars. Advertising sponsorship for LifePlan is provided by Fidelity
Investments.
LifePlan is the first free online service to go beyond budgeting and financial
product recommendations to enable better financial decision making across all
areas of consumers' financial lives. Getting started takes less than five
minutes: consumers simply register a username and password and answer some basic
questions about their financial lives.
LifePlan then provides a personalized financial roadmap, including:
-- A to-do list of tasks, customizable with due dates and personal notes,
which can be filtered by urgency, pillar affiliation or stage of
completion.
-- Relevant articles from SmartMoney in each of the four pillars, updated
on a regular basis, and selected based on the user's financial profile.
For example, homeowners might receive information on whether to
refinance their house, while renters would see stories on lowering their
rent or determining whether now is a good time to buy.
-- Worksheets and checklists to help with key decisions, for example
choosing the most economical health plan for your family or determining
your 401(k) asset allocations.
-- Short videos, hosted by SmartMoney columnist Stephanie Auwerter,
introducing each area and giving instructions on how to get the most out
of the tool.
-- Email reminders of upcoming task due dates.
SmartMoney is enjoying success within the magazine category. March advertising
pages were up seven percent versus March 2009, and April ad pages showed a 44.3
percent increase over last year. SmartMoney has a readership of 800,000.
About SmartMoney
SmartMoney (www.smartmoney.com), the
personal financial magazine from The Wall Street Journal, was launched in 1992
to service the need for personal finance information among a group of affluent
and sophisticated Americans. The SmartMoney editorial team has won three
National Magazine Awards.
SmartMoney.com was launched in 1997 to reflect the magazine's strong background
of personal finance, as well as to provide users with innovative interactive
tools and worksheets. SmartMoney.com has become the most comprehensive resource
on the Web for private investors, providing top-quality financial reporting,
commentary and analysis, and decision-making tools. The site features a
portfolio management system; a subscription-based product, SmartMoney Select;
and its signature product, the Map of the Market, which allows users to
visualize the wide-ranging market in a single view. The site was awarded the
2001 National Magazine Award for "Best Interactive Design" from the American
Society of Magazine Editors and has been praised by Forbes, Fortune, PC Magazine
and The Web Marketing Association.
SmartMoney.com Licensing is a leading supplier of the Web's best interactive
tools for financial planning, market analysis and data visualization. SmartMoney
recognizes the challenge interactive marketers face today of building high
quality, competitive Web sites. Tools and content are provided through fully
hosted turnkey solutions and custom integration options to meet the needs of top
financial institutions and other Fortune 500 companies worldwide.
Custom Solutions from SmartMoney is a full-service custom publishing and
communications group. It was launched in 1999 by SmartMoney as a joint
custom-publishing venture of Hearst Communications and Dow Jones & Co., Inc.
Taking a consultative approach with clients, Custom Solutions reaches more than
15 million consumers each quarter through custom newsletters and magazines,
personalized and segmented communications, and engaging online educational
content. Custom Solutions' two industry-leading print-on-demand 1:1
communications systems, TIM and Rapid Publisher, produce an additional nine
million communications on-demand each year, printing over 100 million duplex
images.
About Fidelity Investments
Fidelity Investments' advertising sponsorship of SmartMoney's LifePlan campaign
should not be considered an endorsement or recommendation of SmartMoney's
products or services. Fidelity was not involved in the creation, review or
approval of LifePlan's content, tools or output.
Fidelity is not affiliated with SmartMoney.
Contact:
Ashley S. Huston
(212) 416-2025
ashley.huston@dowjones.com
Danielle Rhoades
(212) 416-4963
danielle.rhoades@dowjones.com