April 27, 2021 | Stamford, CT — U.S. investment consultants have spent more than a decade expanding their relationships with institutional clients beyond their traditional realm of manager searches and into deeper strategic partnerships with investors.
The COVID-19 crisis put that model to the test in 2020 as institutional investors of all sizes and types sought advice on how to navigate the operational disruptions and market volatility brought on by the global pandemic. In this most challenging of environments, a small group of best-in-class consultants stood out for the counsel and support they provided to institutional investors.
Every year, Coalition Greenwich interviews institutional investors across the United States and asks them to rate the quality of their investment consultants across a wide range of attributes and categories. Consultants whose client ratings top those of competitors are named Greenwich Quality Leaders℠.
This year, the Greenwich Quality Leaders in U.S. Investment Consulting are all firms recognized by clients as providing superior levels of service during the COVID-19 crisis. These firms demonstrated three specific traits that differentiated them from competitors last year:
Strategic partnerships that delivered influential advice to clients during the crisis. In a period of volatility, unprecedented operational challenges and uncertainty about the future, institutional investors faced questions about core elements of their strategies. As they looked for answers, they solicited advice from many sources, including, first and foremost, their investment consultants. Consultants rated as best-in-class last year were seen as providing clients with helpful analysis and advice, and innovative ideas on issues such as capital markets assumptions, asset allocation and portfolio-wide structural changes associated with the crisis.
Connection and communication during work-from-home. The sudden shift to working from home represented a massive challenge for plan sponsors with fiduciary responsibility for billions of dollars of their participants’ and their organizations’ assets. Investment consultants able to harness digital tools to maintain close contact with clients in this new work environment won praise from institutional investors.
“Although technology innovation was critical, this was about more than the pivot to digital,” says Coalition Greenwich Head of Investment Management Andrew McCollum. “Amid all the Zoom calls and other electronic communications, what really set some consultants apart was their commitment to maintaining the highest level of service and engagement throughout the crisis.”
Insights into influential market trends. The COVID-19 crisis accelerated many existing trends in society and the global economy. In financial markets, pandemic-related stimulus measures from the U.S. Federal Reserve and other central banks pushed interest-rates to historic levels. As institutions searched for sources of badly needed yield, they turned to investment consultants for advice on topics like the shift into private assets that represented unfamiliar territory to many institutions. Institutions also looked to their consultants for counsel on the integration of environmental, social and governance factors into their investment processes and portfolios—a process that accelerated last year as investors used crisis-related shifts to strategy and allocation as opportunities to introduce ESG.
2020 Greenwich Quality Leaders
The 2020 Greenwich Quality Leaders in Overall U.S. Investment Consulting set themselves apart from their competitors last year by excelling in these critical areas. The 2020 Greenwich Quality Leaders for the ‘Large Consultant’ category are NEPC, RVK and Segal Macro Advisors and the winners for the ‘Midsize Consultant’ category are Angeles Investment Advisors, Asset Consulting Group and LCG Associates.
“In 2020, this handful of top investment consultants cemented relationships with clients by helping them weather one of the most challenging years on record,” says Andrew McCollum.