Report: Fidelity Out of Top Distributor, Fund Provider Spot

A Cogent Research news release about its 2010 Investor Brandscape report said that Fidelity’s fortunes as reflected in its distributor rankings have been hurt by lower awareness and favorability ratings and a trend showing that affluent investors have more assets in IRAs than in employer-sponsored retirement plans.  Cogent distributor rankings included Charles Schwab, Fidelity, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, Edward Jones, and Merrill Lynch in the top five.

Meanwhile, in the mutual fund provider rankings, Cogent said where The Vanguard Group has improved its relationship with investors over the past year as a fund provider, Fidelity has seen a decline in loyalty. Vanguard performed the best among its rivals on drivers of loyalty such as financial stability and range of products, as well as fund performance. By contrast, Fidelity no longer ranks among the top five mutual fund companies on performance with ratings for the firm on both mid-term and long-term performance declining considerably over the past year.

The fund provider rankings included Vanguard, Fidelity, American Funds, T. Rowe Price, and TIAA-CREF in the top five.

Cogent said its report is based on a representative survey of 4,000 affluent and high net-worth investors in the United States, while the distributor and fund provider rankings are based on Cogent’s proprietary CoRe Score, which combines brand equity, customer loyalty, market penetration, client mix, and share of wallet.

More information is available here.