Account statements pilloried – again

One of the best attitudes came from Bob Larose, Canaccord Capital Corp.‘s national sales manager in Vancouver. His firm performed well in this category but he still advises patience: “There are always a few complaints. Some say there’s too much information on them; others say there is not enough. You can’t keep everyone happy.”

It may well be that advisors and clients are never pleased with account statements, but it stands to reason if the documents merit strong language, they have to be pretty lousy. Accounts statements at BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc. are “a piece of shit,” says a Toronto advisor. “Clients consistently complain about them.”

Other Nesbitt advisors agree. They sent a strong message to executives about the quality of the firm’s account statements this year, rating them a 6.1 – more than a half-point lower than the average firm’s score. No firm scored worse, with the not surprising exception of CIBC Wood Gundy, whose advisors battered their firm to last place in one-third of 27 categories.

Account statements at Nesbitt sometimes pose more questions than they answer, advisor. Another complains he spends too much time combing through the paperwork with his clients. “I have a few meticulous clients who regularly point out things that are out of whack,” says an Ontario advisor.

Nesbitt brokers also ranked their firm among the lowest in “client service,” with a 6.4 vs the national average of 7.2 Management may dray a parallel between low client treatment and account statement scores because one advisor in Alberta certainly made the connection. “Sometimes I’m not happy with the way [the firm] treats clients,’ says the advisor. “they refuse to publish the costs for clients on their statements. A lot of brokers have messed up the costs and pricing for clients, and that’s not on the statement. I think it’s terrible.”

Nesbitt advisors might take solace from the fact that they are in good company in the category. Even top-performing Edward Jones – which in most categories garnered 9s – saw its account statements rate a relatively low 8.1. The statements are good, Jones advisors say, but are not available on the internet. One advisor remarks that this is uncharacteristic of the firm. “We’ve fallen back on technology,” says the West Coast advisor. “We need to develop e-mail and online account statements.”

Jones’ head of Canadian operations says that advisors will have to wait a little longer for improvement. “With the downturn in the market, we had to make some decisions as to [where to spend from a technology standpoint],”says Mississauga, Ont.-based Gary Reamey. “online account statements and bill payment are two things we want to do, but they’re not going to happen this year.”

However, at least one firm seems determined to do something about low scores. CIBC Wood Gundy’s Toronto-based management, deputy head Art Mannarn and Frank Tucci, head of marketing and product support, promise improvements to their account statements. Soon their advisors will be offering consolidated or summery client statements. With respect to processing, “it’s anticipated that, by introducing several systems upgrades, we will be able to decrease delivery times of statements to clients,” says Tucci.

Richard Lupien, National Bank Financial Inc.‘s national sales manager in Montreal, says improving the score is simple. Survey the clients, ask the right questions and give them what they want. Don’t hold back information or obscure costs, or you’ll end up wasting advisors’ valuable time. It paid off for NBF, winning it at Dalbar ranking.

Since then, NBF has added book values for both registered and taxable accounts, symbols for stocks and made other adjustments. Lupien acknowledges, however, that may not end the comments.IE

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