Putnam Investments is the only firm to be recognized for 12 years of Top award winning service to mutual fund investors. The Hartford stands out from the rest by being the only firm to achieve Top award winning service to annuity contract holders for seven consecutive years.
Alger, Ameritas, Guardian, INVESCO, JPMorgan Funds, New York Life Investment Management & New York Life Mainstay Annuities, One Group, and State Street Research earn top awards in multiple categories.
(Boston, MA. January 21, 2003) DALBAR today congratulated investment and life insurance firms who have delivered industry leading service in 2002. Through rigorous testing of service delivery throughout the year, DALBAR identifies those mutual fund, annuity and life insurance providers that are able to exceed the service level expected in all areas that are most important to customers.
Putnam Investments earned DALBAR�s Service Award in three categories of customers, including service to investors in mutual funds and annuities as well as top honors for service to financial professionals. The Hartford also earned the Service Award in three categories, including service to annuity contract holders, life insurance policyholders and financial professionals.
New York Life Investment Management earned top honors for service to mutual fund investors and financial professionals while New York Life Mainstay Annuities achieved the top award for service to contract holders.
Alger, Ameritas, INVESCO, JPMorgan Funds, One Group and State Street Research earned DALBAR�s Service Award for service to both investors and financial professionals.
Guardian earned DALBAR�s Service Award for service to investors in both mutual funds and annuities.
�These firms deserve special congratulations for consistent excellence since they have been faced with the overwhelming challenge of explaining the current inexplicable markets� said Kathleen Whalen, Executive Director of DALBAR�s Service Quality Measurement Programs.
The service awards are based on systematic testing of customer service over the year. DALBAR uses thousands of tests to measure how financial companies respond to the needs for service from their customers. Companies that exceed a variety of industry benchmarks after one year of testing earn the DALBAR Service Award.
The following firms were recipients of DALBAR�s 2002 Service Award. The numbers in parentheses represent the number of times the organization has earned the Service Award.
| Mutual Funds | Annuities | Life Insurance |
|---|---|---|
| Alger Funds (2) Evergreen Funds (5) Guardian Investor Services, LLC (1) INVESCO (8) JPMorgan Funds (3) Lord, Abbett & Co. (2) Nations Funds (4) New York Life Investment Management (2) One Group Mutual Funds (2) Putnam Investments (12) State Street Research (3) Wells Fargo (1) |
Aegon/Transamerica (1) Ameritas Variable Life (3) Equitable Insurance (3) GE Financial (3) Guardian Insurance & Annuity (2) The Hartford Life (7) MainStay Annuities (3) Manulife Financial (3) Mutual of Omaha (2) Pacific Life (6) Prudential Financial (3) Putnam Investments (6) SunAmerica (1) Zurich Life (1) |
Hartford Life Insurance (2) |
| Alger Funds (3) Ameritas Variable Life (2) Eaton Vance (1) Goldman Sachs (4) Hartford Life Insurance (1) IDEX Mutual Funds (5) INVESCO (3) JPMorgan Funds (4) New York Life Investment Management (3) One Group Funds (2) Putnam Investments (6) Scudder Investments (5) State Street Research (2) |
Concurrently, DALBAR named the financial service institutions that are Key Honor winners in 2002. These firms have distinguished themselves as being consistent in the high quality of customer service they provide.
| Mutual Fund Investors | Annuity Investors | Financial Intermediaries |
|---|---|---|
| Prudential Financial Seligman Funds |
Security Benefit Group | Seligman Funds |
The Mutual Funds, Annuities and Life Insurance categories represent service provided to consumers of these products. The Financial Intermediary category represents service provided to professionals who advise investors.
DALBAR, Inc., the nation�s leading financial services market research and consulting firm, is committed to raising the standards of excellence in the financial services industry. With offices in both the US and Canada, DALBAR develops standards for, and provides research, ratings, and rankings of intangible factors to the mutual fund, broker/dealer, life insurance, property and casualty, and managed account industries. They include investor behavior, customer satisfaction, service quality, communications, Internet services, and financial professional ratings.
