Toronto, ON, September 22, 2010 — DALBAR recently released results from its much anticipated Trends and Best Practices in Mutual Fund Statements report. A total of 22 mutual fund statements were reviewed and analyzed for this year’s study, representing one of the largest pools of statements DALBAR has evaluated since it launched this study over a decade ago.
In keeping with the objective to promote the highest standards in client reporting, DALBAR’s investor statement evaluation criteria underwent a comprehensive review and update this past year. Evolving consumer expectations, changing economic climates, and the advent of new technologies were factored into the update in a bid to raise the level of quality offered by Canadian mutual fund statements.
The results indicate that while a handful of firms are doing a good job at keeping pace with the evolving needs of their clients when it comes to the investor statement, the majority of mutual fund providers are falling further behind.
The top three ranked firms from this year’s study were:
The majority of firms in this year’s study did not earn a DALBAR Designation because its mutual fund statement scored less than 60 points out of a possible 100 points.
A telling sign that mutual fund statements are not meeting basic client expectations can be found in the area of performance reporting. According to a consumer preference study that DALBAR conducted, the most important statement feature valued by investors is overall rate of return information on their portfolio. A disappointing 68% of mutual fund providers are omitting this crucial piece of information on their statements.
Beyond meeting basic client expectations, what the industry needs to turn their attention to, according to Anita Lo, DALBAR’s Vice President of Canadian Strategy, is “moving the investor statement beyond a client reporting document and employing it as an tool to build meaningful discussions on one’s financial situation.” She believes that mutual fund providers not only have an opportunity through the statement to convey a message but also shape an important story that reinforces financial decisions.
About DALBAR, Inc.
DALBAR, Inc., the nation’s leading financial services market research and consulting firm, is committed to raising the standards of excellence in the financial services industry. With offices in both the US and Canada, DALBAR develops standards for, and provides research, ratings, and rankings of intangible factors to the mutual fund, broker/dealer, life insurance, property and casualty, and managed account industries. They include investor behavior, customer satisfaction, service quality, communications, Internet services, and financial professional ratings. www.dalbar.com.
