probuyer service 2022
Respondent Report
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Citywire UK Wealth Service launched in 2018 and, since then, feedback from the wealth management community has helped us raise standards across the industry, recognising the fund groups that prioritise client experience.
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To derive more meaningful insights from the data, we split scores across different groups as explained below: For each factor, the top 5 performing firms' scores are averaged to give a 'Best in Class' average which is used to compare against the overall peer group. Scores are also aggregated by Firm Type, where respondents are placed into one of three categories: • Financial Advisory Firms • National Wealth Management Firms • Discretionary & Asset Management Boutiques. Respondents are also placed into three categories based on job function: • Fund Analysts, CIOs & Model Portfolio Managers • Discretionary Investment Managers • Financial Advisers & Planners. Scores can also be viewed by geographical regions: London, East & South East, South West & Wales, the Midlands, the North, and Scotland & Northern Ireland.
Citywire Pro buyer Service launched in 2019 and, since then, feedback from the Pro Buyer community has helped us raise standards across the industry, recognising the fund groups that prioritise client experience. Following the turbulence of the pandemic, the industry finds itself in a new normal. In this survey, the investment community shared the practices they want to maintain from the pandemic, the adaptations they are still waiting to see, and how their priorities continue to shift over time. Providing the best service is a challenge all firms should be taking on. In 2022, we updated our study, making amendments to some of the factor names and introducing a new one: Product Offering. To derive more meaningful insights from the data, we split scores across different groups as explained below. For each factor, the top five performing firms’ scores are averaged to give a ‘Best in Class’ benchmark, which is used to compare against the overall peer group. Scores are also aggregated by Firm Type, where respondents are placed into one of three categories: • Banks & Bank Trusts • Insitiutional & Subadvisory • RIAs & Multi Family Offices • Turnkey Programs • Wirehouses & IBDs
Each year we ask respondents to rate the importance of each factor in the study. This is because, while all the factors matter, we want to establish which of the criteria are considered the most important by our audience, helping to provide context to the scores. In 2022, 213 pro buyers from 120 firms rated the importance of the service factors. The market’s instability in 2022 seems to have had an impact on what selectors deem most important. Three of the top five factors all fall under the Communications & Reporting superset; Promptness of Information climbed to become the most important factor in 2022. Coming in second was Accessibility of Fund Manager, followed by Product Specialist Expertise – which climbed two places in importance. Fund & PR Communication – the most important factor in 2021 – dropped to ninth place in this year’s study. Below is an interactive graph showing the changes in importance over the years:
After the turbulence of Covid-19 began to wane, asset managers faced new obstacles in 2022 as markets were hit again with the outbreak of war in Europe and soaring inflation. In our 2022 study results show that asset managers in the US have countered this instability by strengthening connections, as four Relationship Management factors sit in the top five performing factors. Three of the five factors rated most important in 2022 sit in the study’s top five performing. Despite being high up in importance, Market Crisis Communication sat in the bottom five in terms of performance. Despite three of the Communications & Reporting factors being in the top five most important factors, only one – Promptness of Information – sits in the top five performing factors. Below is an interactive graph showing performance over the years, split by firm type:
Accessibilty of Fund Manager
Despite the Promptness of Information and Reporting & Manager Commentary being important to our respondents, the industry’s performance has fallen in this year’s study and fails to meet the audience’s expectations.
Having been the 12th most important factor, Quality of Factsheets has fallen to 14th most important in 2022. At an industry level, performance in this factor declines by a tenth of a point, while the Best in Class benchmark drops by a fifth of a point.
Respondents rated Factsheets, Manager Commentary & Research lower in importance in 2022, with the factor falling from second to fourth. Industry performance also declined, with the percentage of respondents choosing ‘Very satisfied’ decreasing from 30% to 19%. Split by firm type, not only did respondents from Banks & Distribution Networks rate Factsheets, Manager Commentary & Research as less important than Asset Management Companies and Consultancies & Wealth Management Firms, they also were the least satisfied in this area of service.
Up-to-date data is crucial in asset management and this is evident as respondents rated Promptness of Information the most important factor in the study. However, the industry falls short in meeting expectations in this area of service. Respondents based at Consultancies & Wealth Management Firms are the least satisfied with asset managers with over 10% stating they were dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with the service they received.
– BlackRock – Capital Group – Dodge & Cox – J.P. Morgan Asset Management – PGIM – PIMCO – T. Rowe Price
– BlackRock – Dodge & Cox – Federated Hermes – Goldman Sachs Asset Management – J.P. Morgan Asset Management – PIMCO – PGIM
– Federated Hermes – Goldman Sachs Asset Management – J.P. Morgan Asset Management – John Hancock – Natixis Investment Managers – PGIM
Firms in the upper quartiles are listed alphabetically, not by performance
How and when asset managers deliver information now holds more significance with respondents under the industry’s new hybrid working model. Despite this, asset managers continue to fall short in how they share information – particularly via their websites. Respondents scored firms low in this area in terms of performance in 2022.
Usefulness of Website remains of lower importance to respondents, and the industry still underperforms in this area, with investment professionals stating that they do not use asset managers’ websites due to them being difficult to navigate or displaying outdated data. Notwithstanding its relative low importance, of the twelve methods presented, websites were cited as the fifth most popular for receiving documentation and information from asset managers by our audience.
Peer group performance has steadily increased in this factor since the start of the study. Conversely, the Best in Class benchmark in this factor has fallen fractionally every year since 2020. This year this service factor was most important to respondents at institutional & sub-advisory firms but those from Banks and Bank Trusts were the most satisfied with the service they received.
– BlackRock – Capital Group – Goldman Sachs Asset Management – J.P. Morgan Asset Management – MFS – PIMCO – T. Rowe Price
– AllianceBernstein – BlackRock – Franklin Templeton Investments – Goldman Sachs Asset Management – J.P. Morgan Asset Management – PGIM – PIMCO
All sales-related factors have dropped not only in importance but also performance. Despite this, once again, Salesperson Product Knowledge is the study’s second best performing factor. We found that respondents from Wirehouses & IBDs rated the sales-related factors as more important than other firm type communities.
The first of the sales-related factors is Salesperson Product Knowledge. Despite it becoming less important to respondents overall, it remains the peer group’s second best-performing factor. Overall, Salesperson Product Knowledge was the most important of the sales-related factors and also achieved the highest performance. In terms of importance, respondents based at Wirehouses & IBDs narrowly scored Salesperson Product Knowledge the highest for importance of all the firm types, with RIAs and MFOs coming a close second.
– AllianceBernstein – American Century Investments – BlackRock – J.P. Morgan Asset Management – John Hancock – MFS – PGIM
Salesperson contact was the sales-related service factor with the lowest performance and importance score in 2022. Our survey revealed the most popular method to receive documentation and information from asset managers is via a personalised email from a salesperson. Peer group performance is at its lowest level ever for this factor. Similarly, the Best in Class benchmark peaked in 2021 but has fallen by a quarter of a point this year
– AllianceBernstein – American Century Investments – Goldman Sachs Asset Management – J.P. Morgan Asset Management – John Hancock – MFS – PGIM
– American Century Investments – Baillie Gifford – BlackRock – Goldman Sachs Asset Management – J.P. Morgan Asset Management – John Hancock – PIMCO
Of the sales-related factors, Salesperson Client Knowledge saw the biggest drop in importance in 2022, but the smallest fall in performance. The peer group performance in this factor has been largely consistent since 2019, but the Best in Class benchmark has declined by around a tenth of a point every year.
Accessibility of Fund Manager and Product Specialist Expertise remained high on respondents’ agendas as both factors placed within the top five most important.
Accessibility of Fund Manager rose from third to second for importance in 2022. This was also one of the few service areas which, at an industry level, saw an increase in performance score. Split by communities, the respondents from Wirehouses & IBDs were the most satisfied with the service they received in 2022 followed by those in Banks & Bank Trusts. While receiving an email from a salesperson is the most popular way for our audience to receive documentation and information from asset managers, face-to-face meetings and fund manager webinars were the second and third most popular methods of communication, respectively.
Product Specialist Expertise moves up to now be the third most important factor with our audience. In terms of performance, despite both the Best in Class benchmark and peer group average scores drop by a fifth of a point this year, it is the study’s highest scoring factor. Split out by firm type, respondents from Turnkey asset management providers scored this factor of service as most important but respondents from Banks & Bank trusts were the most satisfied with the service they received in 2022.
– AllianceBernstein – American Century Investments – Columbia Threadneedle Investments – Federated Hermes – Janus Henderson Investors – John Hancock – PGIM
– American Century Investments – Baillie Gifford – BlackRock – J.P. Morgan Asset Management – John Hancock – MFS – PIMCO
Market Crisis Communication climbed five places in importance to sit in fifth place in 2022. Despite this, the peer group performance score dipped fractionally, pushing Market Crisis Communication to the 13th best-performing factor. The drop in score was more marked for the Best in Class, which has fallen by more than a fifth of a point.
Fund & PR Communication dropped the most of any factor in importance with respondents in 2022 and slipped from most important to ninth. In terms of performance, this is one of the few factors where the industry saw a fractional increase in score in 2022. This means the peer group’s performance fell more in line with expectations.
– BlackRock – Capital Group – Federated Hermes – Goldman Sachs Asset Management – J.P. Morgan Asset Management – PGIM – PIMCO
– American Century Investments – Dodge & Cox – Franklin Templeton Investments – J.P. Morgan Asset Management – MFS – PGIM – T. Rowe Price
In 2022, respondents said it was more important for asset management firms to effectively convey information regarding market crises than the other factor in this group, Fund & PR Communication, which dropped in importance more than any other factor.
When it came to products on offer from asset managers, neither relating factors were viewed as particularly important by respondents in the 2022 study. Of the two factors, however, the choice of products on offer was more important to respondents than their being actively involved in their development.
As a new factor for 2022, Product Offering entered at seventh most important to respondents, and twelfth for peer group performance. Industry performance for Product Offering ranks lowest with the Pro Buyer audience compared with respondents in Europe and the UK. For the groups that score highly in Product Offering, the feedback is that there is careful consideration when these firms look to expand the products they have on offer.
Collaboration in Product Development was once again rated lowest for both importance and performance by respondents. However, the peer group performance has been improving since the study began.
– American Century Investments – BlackRock – Baillie Gifford – Capital Group – Fidelity Investments – J.P. Morgan Asset Management – T. Rowe Price
– AllianceBernstein – American Century Investments – BlackRock – Columbia Threadneedle Investments – Franklin Templeton Investments – J.P. Morgan Asset Management – John Hancock
The Research & Data content shared by asset management firms remains in the bottom half of the importance rankings table. Despite this, both of the factors that make up this section sat in the top five performing factors across the peer group
The importance ranking of Bespoke Data Requests remains unchanged. Peer performance in this factor peaked in 2021 but in this year’s study performance falls by nearly a fifth of a point. Similarly, the Best in Class benchmark falls by nearly a third. Despite this, it was the factor with the third highest performance score and 71% of respondents said they were either satisfied or very satisfied with asset managers’ service in this factor. Notably, respondents from Wirehouses & IBDs valued the importance of this factor much more than other firm types and gave the second highest performance scores of the firm types in the study.
RFP Response fell in terms of importance to sit as the twelfth most important service factor. Similarly, between 2019 and 2021, the peer group performance fluctuated by less than a tenth of a point but in 2022 it fell by -0.15 points. This means the factor dropped two places from fifth to seventh in 2022. Respondents at Turnkey asset management providers and Wirehouses & IBDs scored this factor as the most important, but it was respondents from institutional and sub-advisory firms that were most satisfied with the service they received in 2022.
– AllianceBernstein – American Century Investments – Baillie Gifford – BlackRock – Federated Hermes – Goldman Sachs Asset Management – J.P. Morgan Asset Management
– AllianceBernstein – American Century Investments – BlackRock – Federated Hermes – J.P. Morgan Asset Management – Janus Henderson Investors – PGIM
Following the market turbulence of 2022, Promptness of Information was the most important factor with respondents in four of the six regions. This shows that respondents across most of the UK wanted to be quickly informed of changes to funds during uncertain times. The new factor entry for 2022, Product Offering, ranked at least seventh in importance across the regions, sitting as high as fourth in the East & Southeast and Southwest & Wales. Despite this, it was only in the Midlands where the factor took a top three performance spot, sitting in second place within the region. Scores split regionally indicate respondents based in the Southwest & Wales were the most satisfied with asset managers’ service overall. In contrast, those in the Southeast & East were the least content with service.
Average regional score:
France & Monaco
UK, Ireland & CI
The Nordics
Germany & Austria
Italy
Iberia
CH & LI
BX
