Can Peer Comparisons Inspire Consumers to Become Better Financial Planners?

CHICAGO — There’s Jenny Craig for weight loss. There’s Oprah for becoming a better person. There’s Charlie Sheen for losing it. Could INGCompareMe.com, a website heralded by ING Retirement Services, serve as a motivator for better financial planning? ING’s retirement division hopes so.

Yesterday, Denis-Martin Monty, vice president of emerging product development at ING Retirement Services, walked an audience of banking marketers through the tool’s objective during a presentation at Net.Finance.

In short, INGCompareMe.com, which has been around for a couple years, allows individuals to anonymously compare themselves to others financially, with ING Retirement Services hoping participants become financially healthier as a result. The theory behind the tool is that when individuals compare themselves to others, they become motivated to change their behavior, explained Monty.

“The more specific you can be about peer comparisons, the more the behavior changes,” said Monty.

And even if the comparison shows the consumer is ahead of his peers, Monty said the positive status wouldn’t make them slack on their finances in turn. Why? Because a human tendency is to overestimate one’s capabilities.

“It’s not whether you are above the average,” Monty said. “It’s about if you are where you think you should be.”

Though the site has had minimal marketing, Monty said it has been successful to the point where ING Retirement Services is now working on a mobile version.