Cogent Syndicated provides industry-leading, comprehensive insights that strengthen brands and products by focusing on attitudes, behaviors, and the most effective way to influence target audiences.
The topics we cover are responsive to current issues and always align with our expertise of measuring brand awareness, strength, and perceptions; identifying current and emerging industry trends; benchmarking key areas of growth; and providing competitive intelligence.
Boost profitability, improve competitive positioning, optimize distribution strategy, maximize marketing campaign effectiveness, and increase market share with this annual report. As the most trusted resource for advisor intelligence, Advisor Brandscape provides a holistic view of the advisor landscape across all of the top providers in the mutual fund and ETF categories.
Examining the competitive landscape for third-party model providers and asset managers
Inform media buying with knowledge of where advisors go first for financial and business news, and maximize brand exposure by determining where your firm’s specific subset of advisors consumes media.
Partner with financial advisors across the US in new and unique ways, on your terms, to meet your needs. Active 24/7, this new community offers deeper qualitative insight, access to advisors and a platform for advisor-centric product and service development.
Understand how advisors view the alternative investment market, common barriers and accelerants to entry, and how these have changed. And investigate how affluent investors view alternative investments.
Evaluate, track and benchmark your brand against competitors and predict future trends. Updated monthly, Cogent Beat Advisor helps you keep your finger on the pulse of the evolving attitudes and behavior of advisors to effectively grow your business and your brand.
Discover where, when, how and on what devices financial advisors are consuming media to inform effective media campaigns and increase advertising ROI. Hone in on your target audience to build effective, multichannel media plans.
Inform strategic decisions by understanding vital emotional sentiments including current and future views on the economy along with concerns that affect investment decisions. This ongoing research helps wealth management firms tailor product, client engagement and marketing communication strategies to best resonate with their target audience.
Assess the reach and effectiveness of advertising messaging using our ongoing research with financial advisors and investors.
Prove the impact of advertising on brand perceptions and key performance indicators using our ongoing research with financial advisors and investors.
Through our team of industry experts, we provide evidence-based consulting that leverages our unparalleled wealth of data and in-house data scientists. We mine our proprietary data to answer your key business questions, enabling you to set realistic, measurable goals for your organization’s marketing, sales and product development efforts.
Get cost-effective and sophisticated real-time market feedback from nationally representative samples of advisors or affluent investors. Our ongoing survey fielding gives you a proven platform to ask your own proprietary questions to better inform your firm’s business strategy.
Track and analyze competitors’ in-market advertising messages, and stay on top of which advertising themes are most impacting brand health to inform your advertising development.
Evaluate, track and benchmark your brand against competitors and predict future trends. Updated monthly, Cogent Beat Investor helps you keep your finger on the pulse of the evolving attitudes and behavior of affluent investors to effectively grow your business and your brand.
Enhance investor segmentation strategy, improve marketing and communication, identify opportunities to enhance market share and boost profitability among your target investor market. Investor Brand Builder provides a detailed overview of the investor marketplace and the leading distributors and mutual fund and ETF providers.
Understand how advisors view the alternative investment market, common barriers and accelerants to entry, and how these have changed. And investigate how affluent investors view alternative investments.
With the largest transfer of wealth in history now underway, Cogent Syndicated's tracking research allows wealth management firms to size the market opportunity and uncovers how best to position your firm to become the wealth manager of choice for future inheritance beneficiaries.
Discover where, when, how and on what devices affluent investors are consuming media to inform effective media campaigns and increase advertising ROI. Hone in on your target audience to build effective, multichannel media plans.
Inform strategic decisions by understanding vital emotional sentiments including current and future views on the economy along with concerns that affect investment decisions. This ongoing research helps wealth management firms tailor product, client engagement and marketing communication strategies to best resonate with their target audience.
Assess the reach and effectiveness of advertising messaging using our ongoing research with financial advisors and investors.
Prove the impact of advertising on brand perceptions and key performance indicators using our ongoing research with financial advisors and investors.
Through our team of industry experts, we provide evidence-based consulting that leverages our unparalleled wealth of data and in-house data scientists. We mine our proprietary data to answer your key business questions, enabling you to set realistic, measurable goals for your organization’s marketing, sales and product development efforts.
Get cost-effective and sophisticated real-time market feedback from nationally representative samples of advisors or affluent investors. Our ongoing survey fielding gives you a proven platform to ask your own proprietary questions to better inform your firm’s business strategy.
Track and analyze competitors’ in-market advertising messages, and stay on top of which advertising themes are most impacting brand health to inform your advertising development.
Benchmark your plan participants’ satisfaction against key competitors and identify opportunities to cross-sell products, attract rollover dollars and increase engagement among DC plan participants.
Increase DC market share, optimize distribution strategy, strengthen advisor satisfaction and improve competitive positioning with this annual report. The report pinpoints competitive strengths and weaknesses for plan providers and investment managers on key brand, service and loyalty metrics.
Pinpoint competitive strengths and weaknesses in brand, loyalty and key plan sponsor experience metrics to maximize acquisition opportunities and minimize attrition in the DC retirement plan market. Assess 401(k) plan sponsors’ perceptions of and experience with over 30 plan providers and nearly 50 DC investment managers.
Maximize brand equity, boost acquisition potential and ward off client attrition with this annual view of the institutional market. Get a deep-dive into the behaviors and attitudes of senior investment professionals managing DB pensions, endowments and foundations and examine trends in asset allocation and investment strategies and the variables that lead to selection.
We work with 9 out of 10 of the world’s top asset managers
| Company | 2021 AUM (€m) | 2020 AUM (€m) | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
 | 7,091,398 | 6,704,235 | +5.77% |
 | 5,931,340 | 5,624,520 | +5.46% |
 | 3,093,460 | 2,852,410 | +8.45% |
 | 2,833,939 | 2,776,322 | +2.08% |
 | 1,948,190 | 1,832,509 | +6.31% |
 | 1,947,049 | 1,804,720 | +7.89% |
 | 1,805,799 | 1,706,667 | +5.81% |
 | 1,802,212 | 1,709,451 | +5.43% |
 | 1,728,773 | 1,653,391 | +4.56% |
 | 1,598,069 | 1,500,000 | +6.54% |
Discover some of the most telling findings from our 2025 research among the top three stakeholders in the DC plan market: plan advisors, plan sponsors and plan participants.
New data from Cogent Syndicates reveal that advisor adoption and allocation patterns to alternative investments are shifting faster than expected, signaling a fundamental change in how wealth managers approach portfolio construction.
Advisor preference is shaped by more than product performance. Factors such as brand familiarity, perceived expertise, sales support and ease of doing business all influence how advisors evaluate providers.
Advisors also rely on peer validation, past experience and consistency of communication when selecting partners. This makes brand perception and relationship strength critical drivers of distribution success. Benchmarking advisor attitudes and preferences helps firms understand how they are positioned relative to competitors and identify opportunities to strengthen advisor engagement. Insights into these dynamics are explored in the Advisor Brandscape study.
Affluent investors are not a uniform group. Their financial goals, risk tolerance and decision-making behaviors vary significantly based on life stage, wealth source and market outlook.
Traditional segmentation approaches often fail to capture these differences, leading to generic messaging and missed opportunities for deeper engagement. Firms that take a more nuanced view of investor behavior are better able to tailor products, communication and advice strategies. A detailed view of investor segmentation and market dynamics is available through the Investor Brand Builder study.
Investor sentiment plays a critical role in shaping financial decisions, particularly during periods of economic uncertainty. Changes in outlook on inflation, market performance or economic stability can directly influence risk appetite, asset allocation and product selection.
These shifts often emerge gradually, making it difficult for firms to respond in real time without continuous tracking. Understanding how sentiment evolves helps firms anticipate changes in demand and adjust strategies proactively. Ongoing tracking of investor sentiment and its impact on behavior is explored in the Monthly Sentiment Tracker.
Strong financial brands are built on consistent performance, clear communication and the ability to deliver value across different market conditions. Both advisors and investors evaluate firms based on trust, credibility and long-term reliability.
Firms that maintain strong brand positioning often align their messaging, product strategy and client experience with what their audiences value most. This consistency helps reinforce trust and differentiate them in competitive markets. Comparative benchmarking of brand performance and positioning is available through Cogent Beat studies, including Cogent Beat Advisor.
The institutional and retirement market is highly competitive, with plan sponsors and investment professionals evaluating providers based on performance, service quality and long-term partnership value. Small differences in experience or perception can influence provider selection and retention.
Understanding how plan sponsors and institutional investors evaluate providers helps firms identify opportunities to strengthen positioning, improve service delivery and reduce attrition. Insights into competitive performance and client experience in this market are available through Retirement Planscape.
