BlackRock's funds are most favored by registered independent advisors, according to a semi-annual survey by Phoenix Marketing International.
The consultancy bases its ranking on responses from more than 1,000 RIAs, independent broker-dealers, insurance broker-dealers and others.
Some management firms fared well across all channels of distribution. BlackRock was also the top brand with independent broker/dealers and national full-service firms, and in the top three among insurance brokers and regional brokers.
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RIAs also favored Fidelity Advisor products considerably more than their counterparts, as the independent channel ranked the fund company second in popularity.
But Fidelity failed to break the top five with insurance and regional brokers, and did not even make the top 10 list for national full-service firms, such as wire houses like Wells Fargo or Morgan Stanley, who tend to rank their own brands as the best, according to the survey.
Pimco fell from favor with RIAs, from the third most-preferred brand in previous results to the sixth this go-around.
"We started to see Pimco begin to fall out of favor with RIAs before Bill Gross left. Underperformance in its flagship fund attracted a lot of media attention earlier in the year," explained Carl Uttaro, a senior analyst at Phoenix.
"The bad media piled on top of performance, and by the time we set out to gauge RIAs last September, the effects were pretty clear," he said.
Pimco did not make the top 10 in any of the other advisory channels.
TD Ameritrade ranked No. 5 in the RIA channel, and Charles Schwab seventh. Neither made the top 10 in any other channel.
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Nick Thornton
Nick Thornton is a financial writer covering retirement and health care issues for BenefitsPRO and ALM Media. He greatly enjoys learning from the vast minds in the legal, academic, advisory and money management communities when covering the retirement space. He's also written on international marketing trends, financial institution risk management, defense and energy issues, the restaurant industry in New York City, surfing, cigars, rum, travel, and fishing. When not writing, he's pushing into some land or water.
