The 2017 Greenwich Quality Leaders in U.S. Institutional Investment Management Services are Baillie Gifford, NISA Investment Advisors and PIMCO. These firms have distinguished themselves from competitors by delivering high levels of service and effective advice that help pension funds and other institutional clients tackle problems and meet their goals.
U.S. pension funds face serious challenges. Most corporate funds are looking for opportunities to de-risk their portfolios—a process that has been slowed by historically low interest rates and other factors. Meanwhile, many public pensions are investing in risk assets they hope will help achieve superior investment returns needed to shore up troubling low funding levels.
Pension funds—along with other types of institutions—are increasingly relying on outside advisors like asset managers for advice and ideas about how to best navigate investment markets that are moving faster and becoming more complex. Leading asset management firms achieve this level of service by deploying senior professionals capable of having meaningful conversations about institutions’ holistic needs, and using their firms’ product sets and capabilities to deliver effective solutions.
“The Greenwich Quality Leaders understand that service cements relationships through good times and bad, and that over time, high-quality service will result in lower attrition rates during periods of underperformance and improved cross-sell win rates,” says Greenwich Associates Managing Director Davis Walmsley.
Consultants Christopher Dunn, Andrew McCollum, Sara Sikes, and Davis Walmsley advise our investment management clients in the United States.
Between July and October 2017, Greenwich Associates conducted interviews with 1,059 senior professionals at 884 of the largest tax-exempt funds in the United States, including corporate and union funds, public funds, endowments and foundations, insurance general accounts, and healthcare organizations with either pension or investment pool assets greater than $150 million.
Study participants were asked to provide quantitative and qualitative evaluations of their asset management and investment consulting providers, including qualitative assessments of those firms soliciting their business and detailed information on important market trends.