(Boston, MA. January 14, 2008) – Today DALBAR released the 2007 winners of its annual Service Awards. For more than a decade, Dalbar has conducted rigorous testing of service delivery and, each year, identified those mutual fund, broker/dealer, annuity, life insurance and retirement plan providers that are able to deliver industry-leading service to their customers.
The winners of this year’s award have emerged from an increasingly competitive field and represent the service leaders within the financial services industry committed to delivering the highest tier of service to their customers.
A win in 2007 marks the sixteenth award for Putnam Investments and the twelfth for The Hartford. Evergreen Investments and Seligman Funds are industry service leaders with 10 consecutive years of award winning experience.
BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, New York Life Bank and B/D Annuity Svc Center and Transamerica Funds have also been consistent in providing premier service by each earning the Dalbar Service Award for the eighth time.
Other firms that achieved excellence in service include: 1st Global, AEGON/Transamerica, AIG/SunAmerica, Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc., AXA Equitable EQUI-VEST, Genworth Financial, The Guardian Insurance & Annuity Company, Inc., The Individual Life Division of the Hartford, The Hartford Mutual Funds, JPMorgan Funds, Lord, Abbett & Co., New York Life Insurance, New York Life Investment Management Service Company, Pacific Life, PLANCO, Primerica Financial Services, Prudential Financial, RiverSource, RS Investments, Sun Life Financial, and Transamerica Capital.
“The level of performance achieved by these companies sets extremely high standards for competitors and in doing so improves the service levels to customers across the industry as a whole,” said Csilla von Csiky, Managing Director at Dalbar.
The awards are based on systematic testing of customer service throughout the year. Dalbar conducts 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 table provides a list of all firms that were recipients of Dalbar’s 2007 Service Award for each category.
|
Mutual Funds |
Annuities |
Life Insurance |
| BlackRock (8) | AEGON/Transamerica (4) | The Individual Life Division of The Hartford (7) |
| Evergreen Investments (10) | AIG/SunAmerica (2) | |
| The Hartford Mutual Funds (5) | AXA Equitable EQUI-VEST (4) | |
| JPMorgan Funds (7) | Genworth Financial (1) | |
| Lord, Abbett & Co. (5) | The Guardian Insurance & Annuity Company, Inc. (7) | |
| New York Life Investment Management Service Company (7) |
The Hartford Life (12) |
|
| Primerica Financial Services (5) | New York Life Bank and B/D Annuity Svc Center (8) | |
| Putnam Investments (16) | New York Life Insurance (5) | |
| RS Investments (4) | Putnam Investments (11) | |
| Seligman Funds (11) | Prudential Financial (7) | |
| Transamerica Funds (8) | RiverSource (4) |
|
Retirement Plans |
Financial Intermediaries – |
Financial Intermediaries – |
| The Hartford (5) | 1st Global (5) | Evergreen Investments (5) |
| Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc. (1) | Genworth Financial (2) | |
| BlackRock (7) | JPMorgan Funds (7) | |
| Evergreen Investments (3) | PLANCO – Hartford Director (4) – Hartford Leaders (4) – Hartford Mutual Funds (2) |
|
| Genworth Financial (2) | Putnam Investments (11) | |
| Goldman Sachs (8) | ||
| The Individual Life Division of the Hartford (6) | ||
| Pacific Life (5) | ||
| Putnam Investments (11) | ||
| RiverSource (3) | ||
| Seligman Funds (8) | ||
| SunLife Financial (3) | ||
| Transamerica Capital (5) |
NOTE: The numbers in parentheses represent the number of times the organization has earned the Service Award.
In addition, Dalbar named the financial service institutions that are Key Honors winners in 2007. Companies that meet industry benchmarks after one year of testing earn Dalbar Key Honors. In 2007, John Hancock Signature Services and The Equitable Accumulator were the only two firms to achieve this distinction.
DALBAR 2007 Key Honors Winners
|
Mutual Funds |
Annuities |
| John Hancock Signature Services | AXA Equitable Accummulator |
The Mutual Fund, Annuity, Life Insurance and Retirement Plan categories represent service provided to consumers of these products. The Financial Intermediary categories represent 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. www.dalbarinc.com.
