No More Quarterly Performance Reports! Hot

As CEO of Total Rebalance Expert®, I come in contact with many advisors. I was surprised to find out that some of them did not submit performance reports to clients. When I asked them about it, they gave me the following responses:

• Clients get monthly and annual reports from their custodians.
• They don’t want clients focusing on short-term performance.
• They want their clients to value them for their advice and partnership.

Think about it. We don’t want our clients to focus on short-term returns. In fact, we’d rather they not focus on returns at all. We’d like our clients to be thinking about accomplishing their long-term goals. If we are truly wealth managers, then why does our reporting emphasize performance?

In my RIA firm, I’ve always given my clients quarterly performance reports. I don’t think I could stop doing so mid-stream. But, what if the move was gradual?

For example, what if, in addition to performance figures, I also added the following to my reports?

• List and description of services provided (such as financial plan updates, Roth conversion analysis, insurance review)
• Progress toward goals (such as percentage accumulated toward vacation home purchase or retirement goal)

I could then gradually move performance reporting to the back page, eventually deleting such reporting altogether.

Is this a radical idea? Or is it more in line with the services we want to be known for?

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