Part 4: Technology Tools Used for Manager Research and Portfolio ManagementPart 4: Technology Tools Used for Manager Research and Portfolio Management

Morningstar is the clear leader when it comes to the preferred technology tools of the majority of managers, as no less than 87% of advisors in any of the three channels report being regular consumers of content and tools from the Chicago-based research firm. However, there are cross-channel preferences for different service providers. For example, wire house and regional advisors were overwhelmingly more likely to use S&P’s research tools than were advisors in other segments, with 67% of advisors here stating they used these tools versus only 31% for RIAs and 32% for IBD firms. W/R advisors were also the primary users of services from both Dorsey Wright and Credit Suisse, at 34% and 21% respectively, compared to responses ranging from 3% to 8% from the other channels. RIAs and independent broker dealers were the most likely to use fi360 as a research and portfolio management service. However, on the whole, the W/R channel are bigger users of most of the leading research services, which may reflect a larger research budget available to advisors with those firms. 

Click to Enlarge