blog
The FA Vision Brand Index
By Lee Kowarski
As you may have seen in Ignites, InvestmentNews, or MFWire, kasina announced the FA Vision Brand Index this week. The Index identifies those firms that have the most positive perception amongst financial intermediaries according to findings that were part of the latest FA Vision benchmarking survey: 3,007 responses gathered between October 13th and December 7th, 2010.
American Funds received a FA Vision Brand Index score of 25.06, nearly three times higher than the second place firm, The Vanguard Group. The FA Vision Brand Index represents a firm's perception amongst financial intermediaries and is based on intermediaries' selections of the firms that they most associate with the following brand attributes: Consistent, Dedicated to Advisors, Global Expertise, Ethical, Inexpensive, Innovative, and Trustworthy. For each attribute, advisors selected from the top 100 asset management companies by assets under management and the Index is a weighted score of these seven attributes.
It is critical for asset managers to establish a strong brand, especially in this environment where advisors are concentrating 64.8% of their assets under management with their top three providers. This is particularly true because we have observed that a firm's score on the FA Vision Brand Index is positively correlated with customer advocacy (the likelihood that a customer will recommend the firm), which is a key predictor of flows.
It is notable that the top brands on the FA Vision Brand Index are not only the traditional powerhouse brands in the advisor marketplace like American, BlackRock, and Franklin Templeton, but also firms such as DFA, iShares, Ivy, and Vanguard which would not have shown up on this list only a handful of years ago. This shows that advisors are open to new offerings and underscores the importance of maintaining a powerful brand for established players.
The firms that scored the highest on the FA Vision Brand Index for Q4 2010 were as follows:
1. American Funds 25.06
2. The Vanguard Group 8.58
3. Franklin Templeton Investments 8.46
4. BlackRock (not including iShares) 6.37
5. PIMCO Funds 4.99
6. iShares 4.73
7. Fidelity Investments 3.31
8. Dimensional Fund Advisors 2.69
9. Ivy Funds 2.63
10. OppenheimerFunds 2.02
To learn more about the FA Vision or to discuss these findings, shoot me an e-mail at favision@kasina.com.