ClearGlass Recognises Asset Managers Providing Exceptional Value for Money

Updated: Feb 13

The Research arm of independent data provider ClearGlass Analytics today publishes details of asset managers providing exceptional ‘value for money’.

ClearGlass Research recognises asset managers providing exceptional ‘value for money’ to their institutional clients across 31 investment strategies in public markets.

For all institutional investors, transparency of cost and performance is key to ensure they can make informed decisions on manager selection and manager retention, and that they are receiving the best ‘value for money’ from these asset managers. With this in mind, ClearGlass Research aims to showcase the discrepancy in value delivered across the high volumes of mandates included in any investment strategy, to give both asset managers and asset owners a true picture of how the market is functioning, and to recognise some of the most competitive asset managers.

Using CTI data obtained from 479 asset managers (of which 192 hold mandates in public markets) serving over 900 institutional asset owners in the United Kingdom through a total of over 23,000 mandates with AUM of £1.3 trillion, ClearGlass Research has identified nine ‘Elite’ asset managers that have consistently provided exceptional value for money for their clients over the course of ClearGlass data collection. An Elite manager is one that has delivered long term best quartile net performance whilst simultaneously doing so with lowest (i.e., best) quartile ongoing charges for a given strategy. Only nine managers achieve such ‘Elite’ status across a limited range of strategies:

Asset Manager	Strategies
Baillie Gifford*	Equities – Active – Global Equities – Emerging Markets – Active Multi Asset – Targeted Absolute Return
BlackRock	Fixed Income – Corporate Bonds – Passive LDI
Columbia Threadneedle Investments (Ameriprise)	Multi Asset – Targeted Absolute Return
Dodge & Cox	Multi Asset – Credit
Fidelity International	Equities – Emerging Markets – Active
Legal & General Investment Management	Fixed Income – Absolute Return Bonds Fixed Income – Corporate Bonds – Active Multi Asset – Credit Multi Asset – Diversified Growth Fund Multi Asset – Dynamic Asset Allocation
Reams Asset Management (Carillon Tower Advisers)	Fixed Income – Absolute Return Bonds
Sands Capital Management*	Equities – Active – Emerging Markets
Securis Investment Partners*	Alternatives – Insurance Linked Securities

There are a number of additional managers that approach Elite status but fall short by dint of slightly higher ongoing charges and/or slightly lower net performance. ClearGlass will shortly be reaching out directly to these managers to show them how and where their attention should be focused in order to become Elite.

ClearGlass also monitors and assesses asset managers on the timeliness of data delivery, and quality and accuracy of data provided. Three of the above ‘Elite’ asset managers are also exemplary in the provision of CTI data and are rated as Tier 1 data providers (shown by a (*) beside their names, above). In total 43% of the 479 managers from which ClearGlass collected data are rated as Tier 1. In general, the managers that fail to achieve Tier 1 status do so as a result of sometimes painfully slow data delivery. ClearGlass will shortly release a full list of Tier 1 ‘data excellence’ managers, as well as a list of those that fall significantly short of reasonable expectations. Again, releasing these lists is to give all asset owners a fair understanding of how managers fare and allow them to make informed decisions about manager selection and retention based on data quality and availability.

When we provide asset owners clients with cost and performance benchmarking data, we are often asked which managers excel and are ‘Elite’. Similarly, asset managers use our benchmarking data and also want to know if they are ‘Elite’ and/or which of their competitors are. In the interests of transparency and competition, I think it’s important for the wider market to similarly know where true VfM excellence lies, and hence this announcement. Dr Christopher Sier, Research Director at ClearGlass Research:

Media Contact

For further information, please contact:

Nicola Ellis +44 (0)7773615778

nicola@clearglass.com