The quality of statements issued by Canadian mutual fund companies has not shown any improvement since 2010, says Toronto-based financial research firm DALBAR Inc.

On Thursday, DALBAR released its 2012 “Trends and Best Practices in Mutual Fund Statements Study”. A decline in industry benchmark was observed in 2012 relative to 2010, as the majority of statements remained unchanged since the previous study.

The top three ranking firms in the 2012 study were Dynamic Funds, Sun Life Financial and BMO Mutual Funds.

Relative to other industries, mutual fund statements do not provide value-added account details that give investors a well-rounded and complete view of their investments, DALBAR says.

The research firm reports that the majority of statements provided only the most basic levels of detail, such as account values, individual holdings, and transaction activity details.

DALBAR notes that detailed performance information, such as personal rates of return were lacking, as well as innovations found in other industry segments such as goal-tracking and targeted messaging.

DALBAR observed one positive trend, — the more widespread availability of accessible format statements, with many more firms offering statements in the large print and Braille formats.

“Today’s investors are savvier than ever at managing their own investments, and have higher expectations of the firms they’ve invested money with. Mutual funds remain the flagship product of the Canadian financial services industry, and firms would benefit by producing innovative statements that serve as informational as well as educational resources to the investor,” commented Michelle Slute, director of communications & client relations.

The tables below provide the top three ranking firms in the 2012 Trends and Best Practices in Mutual Fund Statements Study, the industry benchmark, as well as the point spread of the mutual fund industry over the past 11 years. A decline in industry benchmark was observed in 2012 relative to 2010, as the majority of statements remained unchanged since the previous study.