Among the awards that
Despite its recent troubles,
"Putnam did particularly well on the pre-sale side. Its customer service personnel kept their calm and maintained a high level of expertise, which helped financial professionals through the crisis," Whalen said.
Meanwhile,
Other winners include The Hartford, Ameritas, Idex, State Street Research and Transamerica Capital.
Of the 40 or so providers that Dalbar tracks, executive director of process evaluation Whalen said that a growing number of these institutions are outperforming the benchmark, and she expects that number to grow.
"Customer services reps expertise is becoming increasingly important as it guides financial professionals through good times and bad. Initially, its all about price, but customer services maintains that relationship. Without that, it undermines their ability to expand these relationships," Whalen said.