A Money Management survey has seen Lonsec come out on top as the best-regarded research house in the country. Mike Taylor reports.
Lonsec has emerged as the best-regarded research house among financial planning dealer groups, according to new Money Management research.
A survey of dealer groups undertaken by Money Management as part of its Rate the Raters process, saw Lonsec confirmed as the best-regarded research house among dealer groups as measured across a range of criteria from client service through to model portfolios and value for money.
It is the second year in succession that Lonsec has emerged at the top of the Rate the Raters dealer group league table. This follows on from the ratings house having topped the league table with respect to the perceptions of the fund managers they rate.
The second-ranked ratings house in the dealer group survey was Zenith which, while dealing with a relatively small number of dealer groups within the overall survey sample, rated highly across virtually all criteria and managed the extraordinary achievement of never being rated at less than “good” or “excellent” by its clients.
The other stand-out performer in the dealer group survey was Mercer, with both Standard & Poor’s and Morningstar both being better regarded in 2011 than during the previous survey period.
The survey outcome suggested that while van Eyk is still paying the price for some senior personnel changes in recent years, the underlying quality of its work remains highly regarded by dealer groups.
While Lonsec ranked well across all the survey criteria, consequently securing its leadership, it was outranked by both van Eyk and Zenith with respect to model portfolios, with van Eyk’s web tools the most highly regarded in the industry.
The ratings company to move up most markedly in the survey was Mercer, with clients particularly pleased by its asset allocation research, its fund and company research, as well as its model portfolios.
Where value for money was concerned, big global brands Standard & Poor’s and Morningstar fared worst among dealer group respondents, while Mercer and Zenith emerged as best regarded.
The distinctive van Eyk model appeared to be well received by dealer groups while that of Lonsec appeared to garner a mixed response.
The dealer group element of the Rate the Raters survey revealed the degree to which key personnel and client relationships are crucial to the overall rank of ratings houses.
