News Archive
Client Reporting - Transformed
Summer 2007
A recent survey* of client relationship managers found that most clients served by wealth management firms scarcely read the substantial reports produced for them. Client reports tend to be complex and often extremely long, detailing transactions and valuation information. Most often their appearance and layout makes no attempt to invite the client to read or appreciate the content. Such documents can be the main contact that clients have with their broker so play a major role in presenting the professional face of the firm.
In the current competitive market there is a strong business driver for client retention. Firms are addressing this by offering greater value for money and a more focused service. Key to enabling this is the provision of accurate information, produced both to a high quality and in a timely manner. This should be aimed at the specific needs of the client, whilst keeping the cost of production under control. Impressive client reports are a key differentiator for a firm, but sadly they often don’t do justice to the quality service a broker provides.
The production of client investment reports has long been a problem within the private client stock broking industry. There is a lot of information that needs to be included to keep the client well informed about their investments and how they are performing; additional information needs to be included to meet statutory regulations; and all of this has to be timely and accurate. Information often needs to be accessed from disparate systems, enriched with pertinent commentary, performance analysis and then collated into a final report.
Some clients will require ad hoc individual reports; some require reports more frequently than others; some want more detail than others. Then there is the presentation, which all too often is the very last consideration. Reports frequently look as if they have been produced on Joan Greengross’ golf-ball typewriter from the set of Reggie Perrin, because of the restrictions imposed by a firm’s mature settlement system. Yet it is the presentation that gives the overall impression of the firm to the outside world.
For many firms, these reports require a substantial amount of a relationship manager’s input and time. This high level of manual intervention makes reports expensive.
Technology is now available to the APCIMS community that will enable attractive, comprehensive reports to be produced that are tailored to the needs of clients. Furthermore the formatting and production can be outsourced and done at remarkably high speed, all in line with MiFID best practice.
Typically, the client report service provider produces a number of different templates for the various types of reports that a firm requires. These are tailored to the individual firm and include its corporate identity, dynamic content and format. It should be possible to set criteria to vary the constituent parts of the content, to adopt different displays. It should also be possible for multiple information streams to be processed into one consolidated report output.
The broker then supplies the service provider with a pre-formatted data file, which is then processed to produce the required documents in printed or electronic format. Speed of production and high quality volume engineering are vital when, say, 10,000 reports have to be produced daily.
A second, identical copy of each report produced should automatically be made available in electronic form to a firm’s client relationship managers. This provides them with easy access to the identical information, when in liaison with their clients.
A well laid out report invariably has the effect of making a document more concise. This, in itself, usually makes a report more readable and also has the benefit of reducing the volume of paper used, resulting in lower printing and post costs.
Reports of such high quality gain the firm a marketing edge. A much greater impression of the firm’s professionalism is achieved simply by enhancing the appearance of the report. This is particularly important if the report is one of the most frequent contacts that a client has with their broker.
In a world that has become increasingly influenced by good design, it is refreshing for the industry to know that a service solution is now available to meet this pressing need.
*Maslinski & Co.