Industry reports such as the World Wealth Report by Capgemini and Merrill Lynch, are consistently showing that client reporting is a key area that clients are looking for their wealth management providers to improve.  Clients are not looking for status quo, but for more insights as they review their portfolios in greater detail.  Just like a health scare, after things don’t work out as expected, you pay a lot more attention going forward.  With many investors loosing over 30% of their networth during the market crash, is it any wonder investors review their investment reports more closely.  Yet we continue to see cases where reporting for high net work accounts is limited to basic holdings and transactions.  Investors are leaving the market due to perceived risk.  Insight and communication can reduce risk and increase comfort in the market as a long term wealth creation vehicle.

Changing client requirements create opportunities in the market for those wealth firms that meet the new investor requirements.

Just came across a couple of interesting articles that confirm what we see around the reporting clients want.  A recent report produced by Cap Gemini and Merrill Lynch notes that 85% of clients are looking for better reporting.  After 2008 clients want to look at their holdings and reports much closer than they did.   Wealthy clients are getting more involved in reviewing their holdings and performance, and the statements are a key way that wealth firms communicate with their clients.  A report by Advent (Advent’s Top Five Wealth Management Trends for 2010 – http://www.advent.com/collateral/TM_WEALTH.pdf) says the same thing that clients are looking for better reporting as part of the services they get from their firms.

I’ve experienced how reporting affects my decisions.  The firm I was using produced voluminous paper reports for my discretionary accounts that included all the transactions for the period.  I asked for a slimmed down version with just the holdings and performance in an electronic format to make it easier to store.  I was tired of having to shred the big paper books sent each quarter.  The firm told me they could only deliver one format , with no performance and it had to be in paper.  I now have a new provider that can provide the reporting in the format I need.