Last night was a good one for the folks at Goldman Sachs Asset Management [profile], Deutsche Asset Management [profile], MSCI, iShares [profile], SSgA [profile], and WisdomTree [profile]. Those six shops were the only multiple award winners at the third annual ETF.com Awards Dinner.

Jonathan Steinberg WisdomTree Chief Executive Officer, Founder, President

GSAM landed three awards at the party, more than any other firm. Deutsche, iShares, MSCI, SSgA, and WisdomTree each landed two.

WisdomTree's two victories included its founder and chief, Jonathan Steinberg, winning the lifetime achievement award. That honor gave Steinberg the privilege of delivering the only acceptance speech of the night, in which he talked about WisdomTree's unusual story. He also thanked his loyal team (many of the key folks at WisdomTree have been there for a decade or longer) and his wife, famed Fox Business News reporter Maria Bartiromo. Bartiromo even came out to the event in support of Steinberg, who received two standing ovations for his remarks.

"I truly love our industry," Steinberg said. "I love being on the right side of all the significant trends."

Aaron Klein, CEO of Riskalyze, gave the keynote address before the awards were handed out. Riskalyze, which just turned five, specializes in figuring risk tolerance for individual investors and then helping advisors adjust those investors' asset allocations accordingly. He called comparing mutual funds, and then goals-based investing support, the first two waves of financial advice.

"The third wave of delivering advice is risk-first investing," Klein said. "Risk tolerance is, 'How far can my portfolio fall within a fixed period of time before I'm going to capitulate ... and make bad investing decisions?'"

Aaron Klein Riskalyze Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer

About 220 fundsters gathered at the Lighthouse at Pier 61 on the Hudson River in New York City for the awards show. After a packed, open-bar cocktail hour, a three-course steak dinner, and Klein's keynote address, the ETF.com and Inside ETFs teams kept things moving with their signature award ceremony technique.

"We've shortened the acceptance speeches to zero words," explained Matt Hougan, CEO of Informa's Inside ETFs conference unit.

Hougan, ETF.com CEO David Lichtblau, and ETF.com conference content director John Swolfs gave out the awards. 23 firms won across 30 different categories (which included one tie). The winners were:

GSAM:
-"best new U.S. equity ETF", Goldman Sachs ActiveBeta U.S. Large Cap Equity ETF, GSLC
-"best new smart-beta/factor ETF", Goldman Sachs ActiveBeta U.S. Large Cap Equity, GSLC
-"most innovative ETF issuer"

Deutsche Asset Management:
-"best ETF", Deutsche X-trackers MSCI EAFE Hedged Equity, DBEF
-"best ETF issuer"

BlackRock's iShares:
-"best ETF issuer website" -"best ETF issuer capital markets desk"

MSCI:
-"best index provider"
-"best index provider website"

State Street Global Advisors (SSgA):
-"best new ETF", SPDR DoubleLine Total Return Tactical, TOTL
-"best new international/global fixed-income ETF, SPDR DoubleLine Total Return Tactical, TOTL

WisdomTree:
-"best new commodity ETF", WisdomTree Coal, TONS

Cantor Fitzgerald:
-"best ETF liquidity provider"

Charles Schwab:
-"best online broker for ETF-focused investors"

Credit Suisse [profile]:
-"best new allocation ETF", Credit Suisse X-Links Multi-Asset High Income ETN, MLTI;

EGShares [profile]:
-"best new international/global equity ETF", EGShares EM Core ex-China, XCEM

Employees Retirement System of Texas:

-"best institutional ETF user"

Hull Tactical Asset Allocation [profile]:
-"best new alternatives ETF", Hull Tactical, HTUS

John Hancock [profile]:
-"best new ETF issuer"

Oakeson Steiner Wealth & Retirement:
-"best ETF advisor"

Pacer:
-"most innovative new ETF", Pacer Autopilot Hedged European, PAEU

PWC:
-"best ETF research paper", ETFs 2020: Preparing for a New Horizon

Raymond James:
-"best ETF offering: independent regional broker-dealer"

RiverFront Investment Group:
-"best ETF strategist", TIE

S&P Dow Jones Indices:
-"best index", S&P 500 Index;

Sage Advisory Services:
"best ETF strategist", TIE

UBS:
-"best ETF offering: wirehouse"

Van Eck [profile]:
-"best new ETF ticker", Market Vectors Oil Refiners ETF CRAK, and

Vanguard [profile]:
-"best new U.S. fixed-income ETF", Vanguard Tax-Exempt Bond, VTEB. 

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