Rhinebeck, NY (PRWEB) December 02, 2014
Phoenix Marketing International, one of the top research companies in the U.S., released initial findings from its fall study among several types of financial advisors. This program has been administered semi-annually since 2005 and polls advisors’ awareness, consideration, and evaluation of 64 leading investment managers. In addition to the significant criteria expected from an investment manager before recommending a firm to clients, the study also identifies the value associated with an investment managers’ technology & innovation offerings, as well as the most successful brand Print ads targeting financial advisors. Insights provide a new understanding as to why some ads succeed while others fail.
Financial advisors evaluated twenty-six qualification criteria in terms of overall importance as a prerequisite for recommending an investment manager to their clients and the top-ten criteria are shown below. While most criteria would appear at first glance as “commodity” capabilities required to be taken seriously in this industry, the Phoenix study shows that not all investment managers excel in the eyes of financial advisors. Leaders among 16 investment managers evaluated on these top-ten criteria are American Funds, BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, Lincoln Financial, and Prudential. Occupying the middle of the pack (and also receiving above average assessments on these most important qualification criteria) are Fidelity, John Hancock, MetLife, Nationwide, and Oppenheimer
Click here to view the most important criteria sought by financial advisors when recommending a firm to their clients.
The value realized from the usage of investment managers’ technology & innovation offerings designed to help financial advisors grow their business was also probed. Shown below are the three most valued offerings, plus two of lesser value. Although utilized by many advisors to interact with investment managers and clients, the perceived value from webinars and social networking (e.g., Facebook and Twitter) lags other manager offerings.
Click here to view perceived value by financial advisors from each of the following investment manager offerings.
When asked to evaluate investment managers in terms of their “Overall use of technology and innovation to support/benefit my business,” financial advisors gave highest assessments to John Hancock, Prudential, TD Ameritrade, and MetLife. Other brands receiving an above average overall rating include BlackRock and PIMCO.
Click here to view overall technology and innovation assessment of leading investment managers.
The semi-annual Phoenix study among financial advisors has been conducted since October 2005 and was last administered in November 2014 among 1,122 advisors who recommend securities, retirement services, and/or insurance products to their clients. Study data are representative of the U.S. financial advisor universe grouped by their role and type of firm where they are employed, e.g. registered investment advisor or employed at a national full service firm, bank or independent or insurance or regional broker/dealer, or an independent/BGA/IMO firm.
Also reported are detailed evaluations of broker-targeted Print advertisements and financial advisors’ likelihood to recommend such leading brands such as Aetna, AIG, Alliance Bernstein, Allianz, American Century, American Funds, Ameriprise Financial, AXA, Barclays, BlackRock, Charles Schwab, Columbia Management, Davis-Selected Advisors, Dreyfus, Eaton Vance, Fidelity Advisors, Franklin Templeton, Genworth Financial, Goldman Sachs, Guardian, Guggenheim, The Hartford, ING/Voya Financial, Interactive Brokers Group, Invesco, iShares, Jackson National, Janus, John Hancock, JP Morgan Chase, Legg Mason, Lincoln Financial, Lord Abbett, MassMutual, Merrill Lynch/Bank of America, MetLife, MFS, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, Nationwide, Northwestern Mutual, NY Life, Oppenheimer, Pacific Life, PIMCO, PowerShares, Prudential, Putnam, Raymond James, RiverSource, Scottrade, State Street/SPDRs, Sun Life, TD Ameritrade, The Principal, TIAA-Cref, Transamerica, Travelers, T. Rowe Price, Unum, US Trust/Bank of America, Vanguard, Wells Fargo Advisors, and Wisdom Tree.