Among mid-sized fund firms, two in particular stand out from the pack in the eyes of financial advisors, according to new research from the folks at a Boston-area consulting ally to fundsters.

Michael "Mike" Evans Fuse Research Network Partner, Director of Advisor and Benchmark Research

18 percent of FAs point to Morgan Stanley as one of the top two mid-size asset managers* in terms of image and reputation, and 15 percent of advisors pointed to Russell; no other fund firms reached even 10 percent. Mike Evans, partner and director of advisor research at Fuse Research Network, unveiled that finding yesterday (June 5).

That finding comes from the results of a March survey of nearly 550 FAs. Those results are part of the Needham, Massachusetts-based firm's new Marketing Support: The Advisor Vfederaeiew report.

"Firms with the top image/reputation among advisors will typically have a quality investment platform, strong sales team, with deep personal relationships, and innovative marketing," Evans tells MFWire via an emailed statement. "The firms that ranked highly among advisors for image/reputation check those boxes."

The other top mid-sized fund firms by reputation, per the surveyed FAs, are:

Federated Hermes, Guggenheim, and Neuberger Berman (roughly tied with 9 percent of FAs each);

Nationwide and MassMutual (8 percent each); and

DoubleLine and BNY (7 percent each).

"We have only done one other time but the firms within the groups are dynamic, so it is not an apples-to-apples comparison," Evans writes. "Because of that, we'd prefer not to share previous rankings."

Evans confirms that the midsize AM rankings "were highly consistent across advisor cohorts," such as wirehouse advisors versus RIAs.

*Defined as asset managers with between $10 billion and $75 billion each in mutual fund and/or ETF AUM. 

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