Two-Thirds of Asset Managers Expect to Cut Budgets Up to 20% in 2009

All asset managers are looking at cutting their budgets next year, according to a survey of 100 firms by SwanDog Strategic Marketing and Financial Research Corp. Two-thirds are looking at cuts of between 10% and 20% and the remaining third are expecting to slash their budgets by 30% or more.

“I don’t know how you can realistically assume marketing will be down less than 10% next year. The only caveat is if you’ve already taken your budget down a ton this year,” Swanson said. “If you’ve already halved your budget, it’s possibly it might only come down 10%.”

Should the economy worsen, however, the cuts could increase, said David Swanson, managing principal of SwanDog.

Firms will become more selective about the products they promote to advisers, he said.