Participants learned about Morningstar’s upcoming release of a new grading system – straight from the analyst team leader, Shannon Zimmerman. Starting in November, in addition to the coveted stars, funds will earn gold, silver and bronze accolades based on their analyst’s opinion of the fund’s ability to perform going forward.
Schwab joined in with two top executives from their Mutual Fund MarketPlace detailing a host of opportunities for fund companies to reach out to advisors. Most of our participants were literally stunned to find out about the ways to distribute their own information about webinars, conference calls, white papers and fact sheets through the Schwab system. Our presenters also provided a handy guide to education and events.
Participants also heard from Access Data, a firm that accumulates and scrubs the typically “hidden” information about which advisors have sold your funds. The need and use of this kind of data, among other strategies, was highlighted in a later session featuring a Q&A with two funds that have exhibited great success in their distribution efforts, Jensen Portfolio and Croft Value Fund, with a multi-pronged strategy.
Financial Planning Association was also represented by two members, a top RIA and a tenured wholesaler. Each fielded questions about how funds can be sold successfully, as well as talked about the opportunities for fund companies to meet advisors at local chapter events and meetings.
Having outside speakers at our annual conference is something new (and this conference was our 2nd in 2011, brought about by the need identified by participants in the earlier event). So, in addition to hearing from the industry experts, there was still plenty of time for the ever-popular open forum discussions, allowing fund companies to share their experiences, successes and challenges running a mutual fund firm.
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