Vanguard, Fidelity, Pimco are top three fund firms among RIAs

Vanguard, Fidelity and Pimco remained the three leading fund complexes attracting the strongest purchase consideration from RIAs this year, according to a study by research firms Market Strategies International and Morpace. The researchers defined "purchase consideration" as measuring respondents' investing intentions by combining mentions from unaided consideration and top-three responses on aided consideration questions. Dimensional Fund Advisors ranked as the fourth most-popular fund provider, up from sixth place in the previous study in 2016. T. Rowe Price and American Funds were in fifth and sixth place, respectively, each down one spot, while Schwab was in seventh place, up from ninth place in 2016. BlackRock and DoubleLine ranked eighth and ninth, each down one position from 2016, while Dodge & Cox ranked 10th, unchanged from 2016. "RIAs now control more than half of advisor-managed mutual fund dollars, making them an attractive target for asset managers," the research firms said in a release. (More: Vanguard isn't taking in as much money; neither is anyone else)​