The folks at 19 mutual fund firms may be breaking out the champagne this week, thanks to a fund industry trade group.

Kimber Lintz Investment Management Education Alliance Executive Director

On Tuesday, the team at the Investment Management Education Alliance (IMEA) hosted their 27th annual IMEA Star Awards celebration, this time at the offices of Calamos Investments in Chicago. The event was part of the IMEA Marketing Summit, and the awards recognize "excellence among investment management firms in the areas of communication, education, innovation and collaboration." Imprint, a longtime support of the awards, sponsored the program yet again.

Matthews Asia led the award winners pack with four awards, all in the "small asset class" category: one for "investor content," one for "advisor digital experience," one for "advisor content," and one for "overall product education." (The firm also won four Star awards last year.)

Next up were American Century, FS, and William Blair, which won three star awards each. William Blair (in the "medium asset class" category) won awards for "advisor content," "advisor engagement," and "overall advisor education." FS (also in the medium category) won awards for "advisor digital experience," "advisor practice management," and "internal team collaboration." And American Century (in the "large asset class" category) won awards for "investor digital experience," "investor retirement education," and "internal team collaboration."

Ameriprise's Columbia Threadneedle, Hennessy Funds, Invesco, Janus Henderson, and Manulife's John Hancock won two Star awards each. Those awards include: in the medium category, "advisor practice management" and "overall innovation" awards for Hancock; in the large category, "investor digital experience" and "overall product education awards for Janus Henderson; in the large category, "advisor digital experience" and "overall investor education" awards for Invesco; in the small category, "investor digital experience" and "advisor integrated data/segmentation strategy" for Hennessy; and in the large category, "advisor engagement" and "community investment" for Columbia Threadneedle.

Ten fund firms won a single Star award each. They were: Calamos (small category) for "advisor engagement"; Charles Schwab (medium category) for "overall product education"; Franklin Templeton (large category) for "advisor practice management"; Hartford (large category) for "investor content"; Macquarie (home of Delaware Funds) (large category) for "advisor content"; Nationwide (small category) for "overall advisor education"; TIAA's Nuveen (large category) for "advisor digital experience"; T. Rowe Price (large category) for "overall advisor education"; Thornburg for "community investment"; and U.S. Global Investors (small category) for "overall product education."

IMEA also honored a retirement plan recordkeeper. Our sister publication 401kWire has more details.

"For more than 25 years, the STAR Awards have highlighted the strength of the industry amid challenge and change, and 2023 was no exception," states John McDonough, head of Americas distribution at Invesco and chair of IMEA's executive committee. "This year's entries are among some of the best we've seen and our industry and each firm should be proud of their outstanding work."

This week's Star Awards celebration was the first one since Fuse Research Network LLC took over management of IMEA on July 1, with IMEA executive director Kimber Lintz signing on with Fuse. 

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