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CASE STUDY

How TCW Powers ETF Distribution Efforts with FINTRX

Los Angeles, CA

Headquarters

$200+ Billion

in Assets Under Management

1971

Founded

TCW

Overview

The TCW Group is a leading global asset management firm with over $200 billion in assets under management. Headquartered in Los Angeles with key offices in New York, Boston, and beyond, TCW offers a broad range of investment strategies across fixed income, equities, alternatives, and

 

emerging markets. The firm’s retail distribution team includes more than 20 wholesalers covering RIAs and broker-dealers nationwide. This team is supported by a rapidly growing internal sales desk and a strategic enablement function focused on maximizing efficiency and scale.

"We really did not have any way to prospect new people to TCW. FINTRX completely changed that.”

Julia Koller
Julia Koller
Sales Strategy, The TCW Group
SUMMARY 

Case Study

The TCW Group is a leading global asset management firm with over $200 billion in assets under management. Headquartered in Los Angeles with key offices in New York, Boston, and beyond, TCW offers a broad range of investment strategies across fixed income, equities, alternatives, and emerging markets...
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Challenges

Before implementing FINTRX, TCW’s retail team faced growing pressure to expand coverage, drive ETF adoption, and support a national salesforce, all without the necessary infrastructure to do so efficiently. A lack of centralized data and dated prospecting tools limited their ability to uncover new opportunities and deliver targeted outreach at scale.

+ Limited Prospecting Intelligence

TCW’s CRM contained mostly legacy clients or inactive accounts, offering little visibility into new firms or contacts. Reps had no streamlined way to source fresh leads.

+ Manual & Fragmented Data Entry

Firm and contact information had to be manually added to the CRM by request, creating inconsistencies and making territory coverage inefficient.

+ Outdated Technology

Existing tools lacked modern UI and flexibility, making it difficult to support TCW’s evolving sales strategy.

+ Gaps in Segmentation

Without access to fields like custodian, product holdings, or dually registered status, reps couldn’t effectively tailor outreach or organize their territories.

 

Why They Chose FINTRX

As TCW expanded its ETF offerings and prioritized efficiency, the team needed a centralized platform to streamline RIA prospecting, improve CRM hygiene, and support scalable outreach. FINTRX delivered, offering intuitive workflows, deep RIA and family office intelligence, and a responsive support team with firsthand wholesaling experience.
 

Results & Impact

Since adopting FINTRX, TCW has transformed its ETF distribution workflow. What began as a search for better data has evolved into a strategic advantage, streamlining prospecting, territory planning, and daily sales enablement across the team.

+ Data-Driven Prospecting

Using FINTRX to identify RIAs holding competitor products, the sales team can craft more tailored, compelling outreach, turning cold outreach into warm conversations. Julia Koller, TCW Sales Strategist, further explained, “We had a quarterly business review and one of our RIA wholesalers in the Midwest was talking about how we were able to identify the top competitors of our ETFs and she was able to run a list of all RIAs in her territory that helped that. That was the warmest, easiest call list she said she was able to pull in a long time.”

+ CRM Enrichment & Coverage

FINTRX has enabled TCW to enrich firm and contact records in their CRM with deeper intelligence through both cleaning existing records and adding previously unknown records. This has made a significant impact on strategic planning, territory alignment, and prospecting. Koller noted, “There were many firms that we just had not seen before, and I don't know how else they would've found them had it not been for FINTRX.”

+ Identifying Warm Introductions

Leveraging FINTRX’s AI-Powered Relationship Path tool, wholesalers on the team can identify connections and warm introductions to increase the chance of getting in front of RIAs. According to Koller, “One of our internals uses the alma mater category. He went to Virginia Tech and was able to pull a list of all of his RIAs in his territory, where an employee also attended Virginia Tech. This is a great way to get creative when prospecting new potential clients.”

+ Detailed Segmentation

TCW relies on FINTRX classifications to segment prospects, specifically looking at custodian usage and dually registered contacts. “Having the information on a dually registered contact that's both an RIA and a BD rep is extremely helpful”, according to Koller. Unable to find this information in the past, her team now leverages these classifications within Salesforce to ensure more tailored and targeted outreach.

+ Streamlined & Efficient Workflows

For Julia and her team, FINTRX isn’t just a helpful tool; it’s a permanent fixture in their workflow. By consolidating research, firm intelligence, and outreach prep into a single platform, the time savings have been substantial. Koller reiterated, “FINTRX is always open on my Chrome. It’s the one tab I never close because the interface is so intuitive and logically set up.” The streamlined interface and comprehensive data allowed the team to transition away from multiple legacy systems.

+ A Trusted Partnership

TCW works closely with the FINTRX team to adopt best practices for their fund distribution. Having dedicated relationship managers with industry experience instills confidence in Koller and her team. TCW values the ability to provide feedback and ideas that drive the FINTRX product roadmap. When it comes to working with the team, Koller added, “What sets FINTRX apart is that if we have an idea, we can share with the FINTRX team and it gets implemented.”


"FINTRX has personally saved me a significant amount of time in my day-to-day. It’s a one-stop shop for the insights and data we need to bring the best opportunities to the top. It’s unmatched.”
- Julia Koller, Sales Strategy, The TCW Group

 

Disclosure: The views expressed herein belong solely to those of the speaker and do not necessarily represent the opinions of TCW. FINTRX has provided TCW with a subscription discount for use of this testimonial.

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