Twice the love for Colonial First State

Vanessa McMahon

Colonial First State (CFS) has taken out a double, judged the best fund manager as well as the best platform in this year’s Wealth Insights Service Level Survey.

And according to the managing director of Wealth Insights, Vanessa McMahon, administrative efficiency backed by technology has proven to be the key differentiator for CFS with respect to both the fund manager and platform categories.

The Wealth Insights survey sought the views of 886 advisers, who rated CFS as providing the best service levels from a funds management point of view, followed by Perpetual and then Macquarie Adviser Services.

McMahon said administrative efficiency had become a key factor in the minds of the advisers surveyed, particularly the speed with which redemption processing and delivery to investors was concerned.

She said its importance in the minds of advisers had increased significantly over the past 12 months, being rated as a top five issue by just 13 per cent of respondents a year ago compared to 45 per cent this year.

McMahon said the ability to quickly resolve disputes had also emerged as a key determinate, rated as a top five issue by 34 per cent of respondents this year.

Commenting on the findings, Colonial First State chief executive Brian Bissaker said it was hardly surprising that the company had been judged the leader in both categories because it worked to ensure consistency of approach across the two areas.

“The same people look after both elements of the business and that ensures a pretty consistent approach,” he said.

Bissaker said one of the keys to the success achieved by CFS was that it worked hard to maintain strong relationships with research houses, dealer groups and advisers.

What is more, he said it represented an exercise in continuous improvement, with the company closely monitoring the feedback it received from surveys such as those conducted by Wealth Insights and then working to achieve improvements where they were deemed necessary.