Boston, MA, Dec. 18, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today DALBAR released the 2013 winners of its annual Financial Intermediary Service Award. The following firms emerged as service leaders in 2013 (in alphabetical order): Allianz Life Insurance Company, BlackRock, Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management, Goldman Sachs, Lord Abbett, and Pacific Life.

For over two decades, DALBAR has conducted rigorous testing of service and, each year identifies those firms that were found to be above their peers in service to financial professionals after a full year of comprehensive evaluation.

DALBAR found the service these firms provide to be far superior to the industry at large, particularly in the following key areas:

• When a financial advisor is calling for service, they expect a knowledgeable individual who is personable and can answer their questions in an efficient and thorough manner…the last thing they want to do is have to call back.
• These award winning firms understand that far better than the industry at large as their personnel is engaging and personable 90% of the time versus an industry at 65%. This gap is even larger when it comes to being thorough and setting appropriate expectations, with the six elite firms doing this 81% of the time versus an industry doing this less than half, or only 43% of the time.   

"Financial advisors have many choices when it comes to helping investors choose the right investments. With all else being equal, they will choose to do business with the firms that also have competent personnel that show a sincere interest in helping them grow their business and these award winning firms know it," said Kathleen Whalen, Managing Director at DALBAR.

The Financial Intermediary Service Award is based on systematic testing of service throughout the year. DALBAR conducts thousands of tests to measure how financial companies respond to the need for service from financial professionals. Companies that exceed a variety of industry benchmarks after one year of testing earn the Financial Intermediary Service Award.

DALBAR, Inc. is the financial community's leading independent expert for evaluating, auditing and rating business practices, customer performance, product quality and service. Launched in 1976, DALBAR has earned the recognition for consistent and unbiased evaluations of insurance companies, investment companies, registered investment advisers, broker/dealers, retirement plan providers and financial professionals. DALBAR awards are recognized as marks of excellence in the financial community.