Van Eyk Research retains dealer group dominance
Money Management's Top 100 Dealer Groups survey reveals Van Eyk Research as dealer groups' research house of choice, while Lonsec and Morningstar maintain broad market reach. Lucinda Beaman reports.
Van Eyk Research remains the research house of choice for many of Australia’s top 50 largest dealer groups.
The research house, which has for some time been the most prominent gatekeeper of dealer group Approved Product Lists (APLs), is the preferred supplier of investment research to 12 of 50 of Australia’s largest groups, including Count Financial and dealer groups owned by Westpac, AMP and ANZ, as well as AXA, Suncorp, Perpetual and a number of independently owned groups.
Lonsec has emerged as the most prominent secondary supplier of investment research to the top 50 dealer groups, and is the primary research supplier for the two largest: AMP Financial Planning and Professional Investment Services, which together hold close to 2,800 advisers.
While Lonsec does have overall client numbers to rival van Eyk’s, van Eyk Research remains dominant in terms of preference for a larger number of dealer groups.
In terms of top 50 clients Morningstar rates a close third, with a strong representation as both preferred and secondary supplier, with Standard & Poor’s and Mercer following. Zenith Research featured once in the top 50 – as the second supplier to Futuro Financial Planning.
Some of the largest dealer groups, including Macquarie Private Wealth, Godfrey Pembroke and Apogee Financial Planning, conduct their primary research in-house – with Godfrey Pembroke, NAB Financial Planning and Apogee listing National Australia Bank-owned ThreeSixty as its primary research supplier.
Macquarie Private Wealth looks to Mercer as its second supplier, while the NAB-owned dealer groups use Lonsec. IOOF-owned Bridges Financial Services is also listed as using internal sources as its primary provider of managed investment research, while listing Morningstar as its second supplier.
Other groups have created their own moulds. AFS Group describes itself as having ‘open architecture’ for the provision of managed investments research, while advisers operating under Synchron must bring their own research to the table.
Independently owned Matrix Planning Solutions uses Morningstar as its key supplier of research, but this is supported by research from external research consultant Rob McGregor.
A number of dealer groups use research as a differentiator in value propositions between financial advisers, with ‘premium’ advisers offered research from the preferred research house and the remaining advisers receiving reports from the secondary supplier.
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