LONDON and NEW YORK – March 28, 2022 – The newest edition of Broadridge Fund Brand 50 (FB50), an annual research study by global Fintech leader Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:BR) highlighting the world’s best-performing third-party asset management brands, reveals that it’s not only scale that matters to fund selectors.

The independent study, now in its 11^th year, measures and ranks asset managers’ relative brand attractiveness based on fund selector perceptions: taking into account 10 brand attributes to reveal the top global and regional brands in Europe, the U.S. and APAC. FB50 also reveals the local market brand leaders in APAC and Europe’s most significant retail markets for third-party fund distribution. This is the latest study from Broadridge’s data and analytics business, highlighting the depth and breadth of its global market insights.

Key insights

“A second year of the pandemic meant that asset management firms needed to have their digital strategies firmly in place: while at the same time, key investment areas like ESG and thematic demonstrated the importance of innovation,” said Chris Chancellor, Vice President, Distribution Insight, Broadridge. “The growing prevalence of ESG in the asset management space redefined prospects for brand engagement and established a new kind of relationship between client and manager built along ideological lines.”

“There were a range of winners in the eyes of fund selectors, and no single strategy prevailed. Instead, groups saw success with a variety of different models: from the supermarket-style offerings of larger firms to smaller managers who built value propositions around excellence at storytelling or carved out a niche as smaller investment specialists.”

The top-five global brands, led by BlackRock, are all industry giants in terms of both assets under management and operational scale. However, the diversity of the firms that make up each of the regional top-50 lists demonstrates that it is not only scale that matters to fund selectors. Selectors’ favourite companies run the gamut from niche product and local market specialists to the major one-stop-shop providers.

Valued attributes

The attributes deemed most important by fund selectors varied across the regions.

• European selectors valued ‘appealing investment strategy’ as most important, with ‘client-oriented thinking’ and ‘keeping best informed’ on equal footing in second place.
• US selectors placed a premium on ‘solidity’, ahead of ‘client-oriented thinking’; as selectors look for security in a volatile environment.
• APAC selectors also ranked ‘appealing investment strategy’ as the most important brand attribute, although fund selectors in the region identified approachable and knowledgeable specialists as key to selection, with ‘expert in what they do’ and ‘keeping best informed’ coming in second and third in priority terms.

Additional findings from this year’s study include:

• Interest in sustainability and thematic fund providers intensified across all regions, driven by end-investor demand. Managers in Europe with a credible track record in ‘green’ investing had a notable advantage over industry laggards, with the introduction of SFDR in EU markets providing a measure of standardisation and facilitating greater differentiation between brands.
• The fastest-rising brands in Europe impressed selectors by virtue of their expert reputation: whether that is in terms of proven ESG credentials, keeping up to date with recent regulatory and product developments, or expertise in more niche propositions.  
• While interest in ESG is on the rise in APAC, so too are concerns around greenwashing. Fund selectors also expressed concern about the profitability of these investments in local markets, particularly Japan.
• While clients want plenty of choice, U.S. fund selectors tend to place their trust in a relatively small number of products, and many favour providers with a broad investment offering and a product mix that works for a vast majority of investors.

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 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 10 brand attributes, which include appealing investment strategy, client-oriented thinking, innovation and solidity. 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.