When it comes to value-add for financial advisors, market outlooks remain king, according to new research from the folks at a consulting ally to fundsters.

Cindy Zarker FUSE Research Network Client Relationship Manager

Cindy Zarker, client relationship manager at Fuse Research Network, highlights the "top five value-add program topics" in the eyes of FAs, rated on a scale of 1 to 5 (with 1 being "not at all valuable" and 5 being "extremely valuable"). "Economic or market insights" tops the list, beating out "tax planning," "Social Security best practices," "retirement income distribution," and "estate planning," though all five topics ranked above 3.5 each and thus have some FA appeal.

"Consistently, economic or market insights has ranked #1 among advisors, which continued in 2024," Zarker writes. "The overall rating was 3.9 on a five-point scale."

Another Fuse colleague recently highlighted FAs' consistent love of fact sheets. And Zarker underscores the importance of value-add materials in this moment, as markets shake and FAs redeploy or even hold cash.

"Value-add is a core component of asset management marketing—economic/market insights top value-add topic interest among advisors," Zarker writes. "Distributors look to asset managers to help educate advisors, and in turn, asset managers know it has the potential to deepen their relationships with advisors." 

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