Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. BR

12^th annual ranking highlights that investment strategy and solidity distinguish leading asset managers

NEW YORK, March 28, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The latest edition of Broadridge's Fund Brand 50 (FB50), an annual research study by global Fintech leader Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:BR) was released today, highlighting the world's best-performing third-party asset management brands. U.S. fund selectors identified appealing investment strategy and solidity as the top priority attributes amid market volatility that has derailed a decade of momentum.

"U.S. fund buyers sought the security of tried-and-tested products with regular income components and low risk, while displaying a preference for established brands with a proven track record of high performance," said Jeff Tjornehoj, Senior Director of Distribution Insights, Broadridge. "Asset managers jostled to differentiate themselves by developing their product offering and increasing transparency. But the overall effect was something of a closed shop, as fund selectors doubled down and largely kept their business where it was."

The independent study measures and ranks asset managers' relative brand attractiveness based on fund selector perceptions: taking into account 10 brand attributes to reveal the top U.S. and global brands. This is the latest study from Broadridge's Data and Analytics business and highlights the depth and breadth of the firm's global market insights.

Top-10 U.S. Asset Management Brands

Key insights

The top brands, led by BlackRock, are all industry giants in terms of both assets under management and operational scale. The top-seven firms maintained their positions from last year, while the rest of the top-10 shuffled positions. Firms lower down the rankings struggled to make gains and break into these coveted positions.

Amid a turbulent climate, fund buyers were reluctant to make new engagements, and larger firms shored up their position at the top end of the leaderboard.

U.S. fund buyers wanted a wide range of products to choose from and favored asset managers that could offer this. However, this desire for choice accompanied a risk-off stance, as selectors relied heavily on a smaller core of safe investments. This led to a proliferation of products vying for limited 'shelf space'. Despite a potential oversupply of U.S. fund products, the supermarket style offering of brands like BlackRock remained popular with fund selectors.

In this crowded marketplace, fund selectors highly valued approachable, knowledgeable fund specialists, whose high levels of client service lessened the research burden required of them.

Valued attributes

U.S. fund selectors chose 'Appealing investment strategy' as the most important brand attribute in 2022, as they did in 2021. Clients wanted plenty of choice, but they also placed their trust in a relatively small pool of proven products. Maintaining a product mix that suits most investors ensures that advisors aren't constantly catching up on new products.

Unsurprisingly, U.S. fund selectors valued 'Solidity' highly in such a volatile climate, ranking that attribute as the second most important factor in their selections – as they did in 2021. 'Knowledge and understanding of the markets', 'Client-oriented thinking' and 'Experts in what they do' made up the remainder of the top-five brand attributes.

Additional findings from this year's study include:

• Product development led the way for fund selector preferences in 2022. The steady rise of model portfolios proved a differentiator – Broadridge's proprietary algorithm has identified over 15,000 models in use as of year-end 2022. Asset managers are frantically deploying new models to latch onto trends such as ESG, tax aware and proprietary & hybrid models.
• ETFs also proved a differentiator, particularly as they marked firms out as innovative and able to adapt quickly to new market realities.
• Transparency of fees and portfolios also proved a competitive advantage for asset managers. Direct indexing technology is becoming a must-have function, as major asset managers jockey for position with financial advisors.

About the research

The Broadridge Fund Brand 50 report is an annual study monitoring the influence of brand on third-party fund selection. The study is based on intensive interviews with more than 1,200 of the most significant fund selectors in Europe, the U.S. and APAC. Fund selectors name their top-three suppliers across the following 10 brand attributes:

- Appealing investment strategy 
- Solidity 
- Knowledge of the market where they operate 
- Client-oriented thinking 
- Expert in what they do 
- Thinks and acts globally 
- Keeping best informed 
- Stability of investment management team 
- Innovation/adaptation to market change 
- Social responsibility/sustainability

These answers, as well as commentary from other preference questions, are collated using statistical analysis and transformed into a 'Total Brand Score', on which groups are ranked.

Asset managers, consultants and other industry stakeholders interested in receiving the in-depth Broadridge Fund Brand 50 analysis can make their request via the Fund Brand 50 information page.

About Broadridge

Broadridge Financial Solutions (NYSE: BR), a global Fintech leader with more than $5 billion in revenues, provides the critical infrastructure that powers investing, corporate governance and communications to enable better financial lives. We deliver technology-driven solutions that drive business transformation for banks, broker-dealers, asset and wealth managers and public companies. Broadridge's infrastructure serves as a global communications hub enabling corporate governance by linking thousands of public companies and mutual funds to tens of millions of individual and institutional investors around the world. Our technology and operations platforms underpin the daily trading of more than U.S. $9 trillion of equities, fixed income and other securities globally. A certified Great Place to Work®, Broadridge is part of the S&P 500® Index, employing over 14,000 associates in 21 countries.

For more information about us, please visit broadridge.com.

Media Contacts:

Matthew Luongo 
Prosek Partners 
+1 646-818-9279 
mluongo@prosek.com

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SOURCE Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc.