Asgard and Macquarie voted the best by advisers

Asgard Wealth Solutions and Macquarie have come out on top in this year’s Assirt/Wealth Insights Service Level Survey, voted by financial planners as being the best platform provider and fund manager respectively.

In the category of master trusts/wraps, the Asgard eWrap received the most votes, Asgard Elements scored second place, and the Macquarie Wrap came in at third.

As a fund manager, Macquarie was voted as providing the best service, Perpetual was second, and third went to Colonial First State.

No strangers to the survey, Asgard and Macquarie have each appeared in the top three of these categories for the past four to five years.

Delighted once again by the results, Macquarie executive director and head of adviser services Neil Roderick said this marked the fourth year the fund manager had polled first place, an achievement he attributed to great service.

“There is quite a lot involved in providing a high service level,” he said.

“Part of this is the relatively low staff turnover in our call centre and operations area, which means a high level of knowledge is retained.

“We also focus on giving advisers the best possible service, whether it’s in regard to a product or customer service.”

This is the fifth year in a row Asgard has dominated the survey’s platforms category, an accomplishment Asgard chief executive Geoff Lloyd summed up with one word: “Consistency.”

“I think it’s the consistency of the quality we deliver.

“We achieve this by spending so much time on our people — recruiting the best and investing a lot in them.

“We also focus on our customers and what’s important to them.

“We were built 21 years ago by financial planners for financial planners, and that shows through in the values and culture of our organisation.”

Commenting on the results, Vanessa McMahon, managing director of Wealth Insights, said: “As all platform product manufacturers — especially the more recent entrants to this market — would know, there is much work to do before laying claim to winning over the hearts and funds under advice of Australian financial advisers.

“With most advisers using multiple platform services, price and benefits have become key differentiating factors for advisers when making a choice between various platform offerings.”

The survey, which is now in its 14th year, was conducted during April with more than 850 financial planners chosen at random.