Toronto, July 2, 2002 – Mutual fund companies that regularly improve their Web sites are
delivering an increasingly better online experience for financial professionals.
Dalbar ranked 12 mutual fund company Web sites for financial professionals in June 2002.
The ranking results are:
| Firm and Rank | 2002 Score | 2001 Score |
| 1. AIM Funds Management | 78 | 62 |
| 2. Fidelity Investments | 72 | 58 |
| 3. CI Funds | 66 | 61 |
| 4. AGF | 63 | 56 |
| 5. Mackenzie Financial | 63 | 61 |
| 6. AIC | 61 | 50 |
| 7. TD Asset Management | 58 | n/a |
| 8. Franklin Templeton | 57 | 44 |
| 9. Talvest | 55 | 52 |
| 10. Royal Mutual Funds | 50 | n/a |
| 11. Dynamic | 48 | 55 |
| 12. Clarington | 40 | n/a |
The quality gap among industry sites is much wider than it was last year. This is mainly
because this year’s two top Web leaders, AIM and Fidelity, continued to develop and improve their sites,
while firms like Talvest and Dynamic, who ranked in the bottom half in both years, did little to improve
their sites.
“Firm rankings have stayed relatively the same, but firms like AIM and Fidelity are
surging ahead of others,” says Manny Da Silva, director for Dalbar’s Canadian office.
Leading sites’ most noticeable improvements were in business support areas such as seminar
planning, multimedia updates such as audio and video, and sales presentations. Some of the lower ranking sites
allude to the availability of sales support tools, but then refer the advisor to the wholesaler to get them.
AIM and Fidelity are definitely the innovators. Examples of AIM’s unique
and superior functionality include:
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Equity centre with streaming quotes and a ticker advisors can customize.
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Information on other companies’ funds.
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Hypothetical calculator to determine revenue if advisor switches to fee-based system.
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Electronic statements, annual reports, and semi-annual reports available.
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10 continuing education courses at no charge.
Examples of Fidelity’s superior functionality include:
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Excellent seminar planning section with a step-by-step guide.
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Customized statements, allowing advisors to view statements by selected date ranges.
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Good scripts for advisors to use with different types of clients.
Surprisingly, account access is still not an industry norm. The top six firms provide advisors
with client account access, while only one of the bottom six do so.
Dalbar applauds all industry firms for their navigation speeds, currency of information and
efficiency in ordering marketing materials.
Dalbar is a leading financial services research firm that specializes in measuring the
performance of institutions and financial professionals in areas such as client satisfaction, service quality,
and communications effectiveness. Dalbar has offices in Boston and Toronto.
