Best Service

“If you want to sit down and talk to an analyst or strategist, clearly the biggest clients are the ones that get first cut,” said Voya Investment Management’s Paul Zemsky, referring to prevailing Wall Street practices. The head of multi-asset strategies at Voya helps oversee $210 billion.

One money manager, who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals, says she doesn’t even bother calling up top analysts at the major banks. She’s come to understand that her firm doesn’t have the pull to get her calls returned, even though it oversees billions of dollars.

Some say it’s just the reality on Wall Street, where banks are under pressure to restore profitability in a business that’s become increasingly regulated over the past 15 years. That makes favoring their best clients a no-brainer.

“It’s a dog-eat-dog world,” said Kevin Kelly, the chief investment officer at Recon Capital Partners in New York. “It’s tough but that’s just how it works.”

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