Most financial advisors with wirehouses and independent broker-dealers think asset managers' wholesalers are improving ... but most FAs with RIAs don't feel the same way.

67.5 percent of wirehouse FAs say they've seen a significant or moderate increase in "product/investment knowledge" among wholesalers over the past two years, according to the just-released "Advisor Top Trends for 2018" edition of Fuse Research Network's Advisor Trend Monitor report. 63 percent of FAs with indie B-Ds also reported seeing a moderate or significant increase in wholesaler knowledge, yet only 37.6 percent FAs with RIAs said the same.

"Firms need to put more emphasis on wholesaler training," Fuse's Pat Newcomb tells MFWire. "Asset managers are getting that now."

Meanwhile, Newcomb notes, 34 percent of FAs (including 53 percent of those with RIAs) do not see a need for the traditional wholesaling model going forward.

"Advisors see those days going away," Newcomb says, noting that FAs anticipate having fewer meetings with fewer wholesalers. "Advisors are hoping to work with only those elite wholesalers going forward."

"Advisors want wholesalers to understand them ... Advisors want relationship manager wholesalers," Newcomb adds. "Wholesalers that aren't going to adapt aren't going to succeed.

The report also covers a number of other topics, including roboadvisors, advisors' sources of fees, and more. 

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