Data & Research March 12, 2015

Wirehouses Show Plenty of Distribution Muscle

Less than a quarter of wirehouse advisers control nearly half of all traditionally advised assets, says Cerulli Associates in a new report. 
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“Wirehouse advisers make up just 16% of overall headcount, but control more than 42% of all traditionally advised assets,” states Kenton Shirk, associate director at Cerulli. “The wirehouse channel offers both the greatest opportunity and the greatest challenges for product providers. As they constitute the lion’s share of adviser-directed assets, these firms are a strategic priority for nearly every asset management firm.”

Having recognized their position, wirehouses have sought to maximize the revenue they receive from the product providers through revenue-sharing, preferred partnership programs and other sponsorship opportunities.

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“While this has reduced the profitability of wirehouse relationships for asset managers, the pure scale of the opportunity at the wirehouse firms has kept providers from abandoning their distribution efforts,” Shirk explains. “Product providers have become even more focused on maximizing their returns of investment at each wirehouse by implementing portfolio specialist roles in attempts to increase their placement on home-office-generated recommended investment lists, which heavily influence adviser investment decisions.”

Though Cerulli expects modest reductions in wirehouse market share in the near term, the channel will remain the premier distribution opportunity for product providers and, therefore, a central element of their strategic distribution plans.

Cerulli Associates is a global analytics firm in Boston. “Intermediary Distribution 2014: Optimizing Distribution Channel Resources,” which focuses on financial products and distribution, including market sizing, adviser product use, and asset manager salesforces, is available through Cerulli’s website.

Deals & People March 12, 2015

ASPPA Becomes the American Retirement Association

The American Society of Pension Professionals and Actuaries has rebranded as the American Retirement Association.
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After some 50 years of operations, the American Society of Pension Professionals and Actuaries (ASPPA) has taken a new name, the American Retirement Association (ARA), to reflect an expanding mission.

The ARA and its affiliated organizations represent more than 20,000 members across nearly all retirement industry professions—including actuaries, consultants and administrators, insurance professionals, financial advisers, accountants, attorneys and human resource (HR) managers.

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The ARA’s roots extend back to the 1966 founding of the American Society of Pension Actuaries. Today its members work with retirement plans of all types, from traditional defined benefit (DB) pension plans to 401(k)s, 403(b)s and 457 plans.  

Brian Graff, executive director and CEO of the ARA, says membership has seen strong growth in recent years. “This new name and structure allows us to better acknowledge and represent the distinct perspectives of an expanding array of retirement plan professionals in a dynamic and complex legislative and regulatory environment,” he says.

Based in the Washington, D.C., area, the ARA is a nonprofit organization with the goals of educating retirement benefit professionals and “creating a framework of policy that gives every working American the ability to have a comfortable retirement.”

The organization is composed of four distinct retirement industry associations. These are the American Society of Pension Professionals and Actuaries (ASPPA); the ASPPA College of Pension Actuaries (ACOPA); the National Association of Plan Advisors (NAPA); and the National Tax-deferred Savings Association (NTSA).

As part of the launch of the American Retirement Association, a new logo and brand identity have also been developed for each of its member associations. 

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