FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Rich Chimberg
CL-Media Relations, LLC
1-617-244-9007 (work)
1-617-312-4281 (mobile)
rich@cl-media.com
Sarah Lazarus
CL-Media Relations, LLC
1-978-369-4478 (work)
1-617-335-7823 (mobile)
sarah@cl-media.com
FINANCIAL ADVISORY MODELS FRAGMENT IN U.S. FUND MARKET;
MONEY MANAGERS SCRAMBLE TO CATCH UP: CASEY QUIRK
DARIEN, Conn., May 19, 2014 – As commission-based financial advisory practices are in retreat
giving way to fee-based models and a heightened emphasis on client outcomes, emerging
archetypes increasingly employed by financial advisors threaten the hold a select group of brandname money managers have had in selling their funds in the U.S. retail market, according to a
new whitepaper from Casey, Quirk & Associates LLC, a leading management consultant to the
global asset management industry.
In the past decade, four advisor archetypes emerged to challenge the legacy manager selector
model in which advisors would invest their clients’ assets mostly through a select group of brandname fund firms. The four newer models – which Casey Quirk identifies as portfolio managers,
passive allocators, multi-asset-class solution (MACS) outsourcers, and home office outsourcers –
now control 66% of the assets managed by advisors and are reshaping the U.S. retail fund
market. Through 2017, those models will capture a 71% market share, at the expense of the
legacy archetype, which will decline to 24% of the advisor-sold assets, from 33% today and 79%
in 2003, according to Casey Quirk.
The stakes are high for money managers, as the U.S. intermediary market consisting of 300,000
financial advisors drives approximately 28% of total global asset management industry revenue,
according to the Casey Quirk whitepaper, Re-Tooling U.S. Intermediary Sales: New Advisor
Targeting Strategies. The Casey Quirk whitepaper is based on the firm’s ongoing surveys of
financial advisors and supported by the world’s largest proprietary database of asset managers
and buyers of investment services.
Many money managers have yet to embrace this new world of fee-based compensation and
outcome-oriented investing in both their product development and approach to client
relationships, said Jeffrey Levi, a director at Casey Quirk and one of the authors of the
whitepaper.
“Managers concentrating their efforts on what we call legacy manager selectors are competing
for a shrinking pool of assets, while ineffectively covering the advisors with the growing asset
base and, crucially, the source of net new fund flows,” Levi said.
“With financial advisors shifting away from the ‘one-size-fits all’ strategy, asset managers have a
tremendous opportunity to take market share,” said Justin White, also a co-author of the paper
and a director at Casey Quirk. “The winning manager strategies will be those targeting advisor
groups with skills in specific areas, and reshaping their sales and marketing efforts accordingly.’’
Of the four new advisor models described below in greater detail, the fastest growing over the
next three years will be portfolio managers and MACS outsourcers:




Portfolio managers seek best-of-breed product across a wide range of asset classes and
assume investment responsibilities at the practice level
MACS outsourcers use a core-satellite approach, with multi-asset class solutions as core,
and additional managers tactically
Home office outsourcers are the advisors primarily using their firms’ packaged portfolios
and advice
Passive allocators focus on asset allocation and use index funds and ETFs
While the appetite for asset strategies will vary widely depending on the advisor model, Casey
Quirk’s global demand model forecasts that new fund flows will favor MACS, liquid alternatives
and unconstrained fixed income through 2018, with U.S. equities suffering outflows.
To obtain the full Casey Quirk whitepaper, please go to the firm’s website, www.caseyquirk.com.
About Casey, Quirk & Associates LLC
Casey Quirk is a management consultant that focuses solely on advising investment management
firms. Casey Quirk’s work with senior leadership teams includes broad business strategy reviews,
investment positioning and strategy, market opportunity evaluations, organizational design,
ownership and incentive structuring, and transaction due diligence. In the past five years, Casey
Quirk has advised a majority of the 50 largest investment management organizations worldwide.
For more information please visit www.caseyquirk.com.
###