T. Rowe Price is adding more than 50 client-facing staff to its U.S. wealth business in a bet that financial advisors will favor asset managers that go above and beyond with specialist help and practical resources, rather than just providing product access.
The Baltimore-based manager said the new hires sit in its U.S. Intermediaries unit, covering broker-dealer and registered investment advisor field sales, plus specialist teams for alternatives, exchange-traded funds and model portfolios.
The expansion comes as industry research suggests many asset managers are still misjudging what advisors want from them.
Kevin Collins, who runs the intermediaries business, said the pressures on advisors have changed the job of supporting them.
“Financial advisors are operating in a rapidly changing marketplace,” Collins said in a statement. “They’re helping clients navigate more complex markets, extreme equity market concentration, and a dynamic interest rate environment, all against clients’ growing needs for more tailored wealth solutions.”
Two senior hires anchor the effort, and both report to Annie Brown, co-head of wealth management within the unit.
Kevin Johnson, formerly head of platform distribution at Allspring Global Investments, is now head of wealth research. With more than three decades in the industry, he is stepping to work with the manager research and discretionary model teams that decide which strategies reach advisors’ platforms.
Ryan Bauer, the new head of RIA enterprise national accounts, will be overseeing the firm’s largest and most complex RIA relationships. He arrives after 12 years at DWS Group, the asset management arm of Deutsche Bank.
T. Rowe Price says it plans to further support advisors and their clients access to tax-optimized drawdown strategies, its Portfolio Construction Solutions service and custom model portfolios. The enhanced support also covers alternatives, separately managed accounts, actively managed ETFs, and practice management content.
The push builds on years of courting intermediaries. The firm once leaned heavily on no-load shares, then began stepping up its game to serve financial advisers with a larger wholesaler force. Around that time it also secured positions on the Schwab and Fidelity no-transaction-fee platforms, long favored by RIAs.
The firm's efforts to serve advisors' needs continued with the launch of its first transparent active equity ETFs in 2023, which it followed up with a reshuffling of its intermediaries channel leadership in 2024.
Last year, it struck a partnership with Goldman Sachs to offer alternative investments for wealthy clients, including private-public portfolios that include a small portion allocated toward alternative assets.
Research from Cerulli Associates suggests the timing is right, even as the broader asset management industry may be aiming at the wrong targets.
In its latest U.S. Intermediary Distribution report, Cerulli found that 84% of advisors consider thought leadership important when choosing an asset management partner. Some 76% weigh the quality of digital tools, such as advisor portals.
The bigger finding is a gap between perception and demand. Some 52% of distribution team members think advisors want business consulting and strategic growth advice, but only 16% of advisors rank it as a priority. Advisors instead want resources they can use with clients: client engagement strategies (37%), financial planning implementation support (29%) and behavioral finance coaching tools (27%).
“For asset managers, the most actionable opportunities are client-facing resources advisors can apply directly with clients,” said Andrew Blake, associate director at Cerulli.
A separate Cerulli study of the managed accounts market found that rep-as portfolio-manager programs hold $4.7 trillion, the most of any managed account program type. Unified managed account programs, at $4.5 trillion, are expected to overtake them soon.
While the trend of advisory firms outsourcing investment management is real, Scott Smith, senior director at Cerulli, says many advisors are still hesitant to give up portfolio discretion.
"In this evolving landscape, asset managers must be prepared to support wealth managers in multiple capacities to gain marketshare and strengthen their position as strategic partners," Smith said.
Asset managers are responding by explaining where their products fit in a portfolio, the most common step at 54.8% of firms. When contemplating the most valuable resources they can offer, respondents to Cerulli's survey research ranked thought leadership first (78.1%), followed by implementation guidance (65.6%) and practice management techniques (53.1%).
“Asset managers should be prepared to support both discretionary advisors seeking portfolio construction resources and home offices aiming to limit advisor discretion,” Smith said.
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