Susan Gordon, Business Reporter

Fern Proctor (left) and Nasma Mohammed-Chin (right), Jamaica manager of MACO magazine, were among those who attended the launch of Guardian Asset Management's 'Destination Referral Club', held on the East Lawns, Devon House, Hope Road, on February 28, 2007. - Winston Sill/Freelance Photographer

If you are one of those who think that you should be paid for word-of-mouth promotion, then Guardian Asset Management's (GAM) reward system might appeal to you.

Guardian has introduced a reward system called the Destination Referral Club (DRC) which awards points to its clients who refer other persons to its investment products and services. Points are awarded based on the level of investment that is made by the person who has been referred.

According to Guardian Asset Management's marketing manager, Donna Mesquita, the referral programme targets the more sophisticated investor whose lifestyle would normally afford them the opportunity of booking into top-end resorts from time to time.

Hence, the DRC offers those clients the opport-unity of earning a paid vacation at a renowned Caribbean resort on amassing the requisite number of points.

The company started the DRC last year to boost its stake of the securities market over the five per cent it now controls. At the end of last year, GAM had under management funds in excess of $13 billion. Statistics from the Financial Services Commission show that as at September 30 last year, securities dealers had $636.3 billion under management.

service value

It is not certain, however, how much the reward scheme has benefited Guardian, and Mesquita could not say either. "I can't say how much income it has generated as yet, but we would've improved our service value and relationship with clients," she said of the programme.

With the proliferation of unregulated investment schemes, which offered clients as much as 10 per cent return per month, and the resulting impact on the businesses of traditional investment houses, Mesquita said it was difficult to measure how much the new system had contributed to the company's investment portfolio. She said the company would fully assess the merits of the system by next year.

financial houses

"Last year was challenging because of the (unregulated) financial schemes," Mesquita told Sunday Business, while admitting that traditional financial houses had lost clients.

Guardian, which is aiming to improve service deli-very to its clients in the highly competitive securities market, two months ago rolled out a Web messenger ser-vice which persons can access to interact with financial advisers and analysts by logging on to its website.