Fund giant American Funds will increase its sales force by 25% over the next six to eight months, building up to a team of 145 from 115. Coupled with the firm’s growth plans is the effort to increase transparency around its investment process by publishing reports about how its portfolio teams are created.
The trend toward fee-based compensation models is at the core of their evolutionary process. “The way advisors conduct business today is just fundamentally different,” Matt O’Connor of American Funds notes. “Their expectations have gone up. They expect us to know more about them, more about their options and the platforms they use. It's much more of a consultative conversation.”
Adoption of the fee-based model has fundamentally changed the interaction with the advisor. Wire houses and regional brokers, which are among American Funds’ core clients, are following the trend — altering the way they interact and work with asset management companies like American Funds.
