The reports of fund wholesaling's death are greatly exaggerated, according to the folks at a consulting ally to asset managers.

Thomas "Neil" Bathon Fuse Research Network Founder, Partner

Yesterday, Craig Kilgallen, director of relationship development at Fuse Research Network, highlighted new Fuse research findings on the continuing impact of wholesalers. The Fuse team shared results from the Boston-based firm's latest Wholesaler Effectiveness survey.

"The death of wholesaling has been foretold erroneously over and over based on ever-evolving reasons. Today it's AI, data, and technology that will provide the final push," the Fuse team writes. "Yet ... wholesaling still influences decisions, with advisors rating wholesaler interactions as the third most important consideration in making product decisions." (Fuse's note doesn't mention what the top two considerations are: perhaps performance and fees?)

When it comes to the top three wholesalers FAs work with on an ongoing basis, the Fuse team found that the top factor driving those ongoing relationships is "investment performance," which 95 percent of FAs describes as "highly impactful" or "somewhat impactful" (while only five percent call that "not impactful"). Other top factors include strong wholesaler investment knowledge (cited by 91 percent of FAs as somewhat or highly impactful) and having a long-term friendship or relationship with the wholesaler (cited by 84 percent). On the flip side, 50 percent of FAs said that wholesalers industry credentials are "not impactful" to such relationships. 

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