Putnam Investments [see profile] executives, led by CEO Bob Reynolds, on Tuesday morning hosted an absolute return symposium at the St. Regis in New York City. Boston-based Putnam also used the stage to reveal findings from its survey on advisor appetite for absolute return funds.

Putnam Investments CEO Bob Reynolds (l), Rogerscasey head of beta research Cynthia Steer (c) and Putnam head of global disribution Bill Connolly (r) at Tuesday's event in New York.

The event comes as Putnam's absolute return mutual funds are nearing their second birthday.

Putnam launched its line of Absolute Return Funds in January of 2009. Gross sales of the funds are currently approaching $3 billion and close to 9,000 advisors from more than 500 broker-dealers have used the funds, say Putnam officials.

Reynolds told The MFWire.com that the number of advisors that have used the products surpassed Putnam's expectations.

Around 75 advisors and consultants turned out for Tuesday's event, which also attracted 20 journalists.

Besides Reynolds, other speakers include Cathy Saunders, who runs the RIA channel at Putnam; Jeffrey Knight, Putnam's head of global asset allocation; Merl Baker, principal at Brightwork Partners, which conducted the advisor survey for Putnam; Gabriel Burstein, global head of investment research and portfolio solutions for Lipper and Digital Ventures within the wealth management group of Thomson Reuters; and Cynthia Steer, head of beta research at Rogerscasey.

Also spotted at the event were Jeff Carney, head of global marketing and products and Bill Connolly, head of global distribution.

Among the survey findings that Baker presented to the audience are: 76 percent of polled advisors said they were familiar with absolute return strategies and 59 percent said they were at least somewhat likely to recommend funds employing those strategies to clients.

Two hundred fifty-six advisors across all channels took part in the phone survey conducted by Brightwork Partners on Putnam's behalf from October 13-November 1. 

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