U.K.-based partnership Baillie Gifford and U.S. liability-driven investment (LDI) specialist NISA Investment Advisors are the Greenwich Associates  2015 Quality Leaders in U.S. Institutional Investment Management Service.

NISA Investment Advisors and Baillie Gifford claim the title of Greenwich Quality Leader at a time when client service has an increasingly important role in the investment management industry. A string of challenges including funding shortfalls, an extended period of historically low interest rates and yields, and market complexity has placed institutional investors under significant pressure.

As they contend with these challenges, investors are looking to investment managers for help. “In the not too distant past, managers were expected to do one thig: deliver on the mandate, which for active managers usually meant producing investment alpha,” says Greenwich Associates consultant Andrew McCollum. “But today, investors want ideas, advice and solutions that can help them meet their organizational and investment needs.”

Delivering that kind of advisory service requires investment managers to develop a deep understanding of their clients’ situations and needs and to tap into their own expertise and capabilities to provide solutions. That type of client service effort goes far beyond the scope of a single relationship manager. Developing true counseling relationships with clients requires consistent input from portfolio managers, product specialists, sales and client relations professionals.

“Client service at this level requires a true ‘team of advisors’ approach that represents a major change in thinking and structure for many managers,” says McCollum.

Client Service Quality Has a Direct Impact on Asset Retention and Cross-Sales
The quality of an investment manager’s client service and its performance can have a direct bearing on business outcomes. Research from Greenwich Associates shows that during times of sub-par investment performance, asset managers with top-rated client service lose far fewer assets than firms with client service rated in the bottom-tier. In these situations, top-rated firms retain an average 22% more assets than bottom-rated managers.

 “Client service’s influence on critical outcomes in asset retention and cross-selling will only become stronger as investors seek out managers capable delivering ideas, advice and other forms of value beyond the constraints of traditional investment mandates,” says Greenwich Associates consultant Davis Walmsley.