Asset managers need to continue prioritizing what advisors need most while also minding their fees, at least that's what one super-OSJ chief recommends.

Rita Robbins, president of New York City-based Affiliated Advisors, urges asset managers to "continue to revise and think strategically about the value-add that they're bringing to advisors." Affiliated Advisors is an OSJ aligned with Royal Alliance and has about 110 advisors across 18 branch offices.

"I'm not sure that I feel like the commitment in terms of resources continues to be there for all asset managers," says Robbins, who spent 10 years as a mutual fund wholesaler before coming to the OSJ side of the business. "I hope they're not looking to the very things that advisors need most from them when they're looking to cut costs, like seasoned wholesalers, research, and practice management information."

Value adds that Robbins favors include "information about how people save" and helping advisors "court millennials."

On pricing, advisors are facing compression, too, and Robbins encourages fundsters to take a close look at what and how they charge.

"The other thing that they're really going to have to address is the fees," Robbins says. "Their business model and their pricing model really hasn't changed in decades."

Robbins warns fundsters that, while they may not look so fondly on the house that Bogle built, advisors have warmed up.

"Advisors don't think about Vanguard as the enemy," Robbins says. "They think about them as a company that's going to help them attract and grow their client bases."

In terms of personnel, Robbins says that she's "discouraged by the lack of women in senior leadership at asset management firms."

"Women are not a niche market," Robbins says. 

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