When it comes to sales in the RIA channel, fundsters place prime importance on face-to-face, physical meetups, according to new research from the folks at an industry consulting firm near Boston.

Michael Cooper Fuse Research Network Senior Research Analyst

On Tuesday (January 20), Michael Cooper, senior research analyst at Fuse Research Network, unveiled additional findings from Covering RIAs: How Aggregators Are Changing Firms' Strategy. That report, released on December 18, was authored by Loren Fox, director of research, and draws on surveys of national accounts leaders (in April and May of 2025) and sales leaders (in September and October of 2025) from firms with $6 trillion in combined mutual fund and ETF AUM.

When it comes to making RIA connections, in-person trumps all in fundsters' eyes. 78 percent of them told the Fuse team that "in-person meetings with external wholesalers" are "crucial" or "very important" interactions with RIAs, well ahead of all other types of interactions. The only other RIA interaction type favored by a majority of fundsters was "in-person meetings with PMs or client PMs," called crucial or very important by 65 percent.

Those in-person meetings were far more popular in fundsters' eyes than remote options, such as:

"calls/video meetings with externals," 48 percent;

"calls/webinars with portfolio managers," and "calls/video meetings with product specialists," 35 percent each;

"national accounts interaction with RIA home office," 30 percent; and

"phone/email with internals or client service," 13 percent."

"Asset managers need to leverage their marketing, events, and specialist resources to pave the way for face-to-face interactions, especially since it's difficult to obtain meetings with RIAs in general," Cooper tells MFWire via email. 

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