Hearts & Wallets released its national customer satisfaction rating on Tuesday, which identifies top performing financial services firms in the eyes of their customers and top consumer wants for firms and financial professionals.
Over 5,000 U.S. households rate their top two financial providers on service and pricing performance in the Wants & Pricing: How Top Performers Crack the Code to Get Customer Wants Right report.
The ratings cover 27 attributes for five key service dimensions and three pricing dimensions.
The report also analyzes how consumers perceive value in relation to pricing, the prices they believe they are paying, and how well they understand how providers earn money.
Top wants
Fees remain top of mind for consumers.
The top want for consumers is “fees are clear and understandable,” at 57% of all consumers nationally in 2018, up nine percentage points since 2013.
Reasonable and low fees are also important for consumers, who also want firms to “explain things in understandable terms” at 53%, up eight percentage points at the national level.
The most frequent consumer wants for financial professionals include being open and honest about fees, responsiveness and patience.
Expectations increase for more affluent consumers who are directly paying financial professionals.
Young consumers have high expectations for advice that they perceive as being “free,” where the financial professional fee is not directly reflected (such as phone-based mutual fund company, online brokerage representative or bank representative).
‘Top Performer’ firms
Top Performers for selected attributes include:
Understands me and shares my values: Ameriprise Financial, Edward Jones, Morgan Stanley, USAA and Wells Fargo Advisors, with PNC as “most improved.”
Offers personal financial advice: Edward Jones is the Top Performer, with Edward Jones and Vanguard are most improved.
Investment ideas knowledgeable, timely and tactical: – Ameriprise, Charles Schwab, Edward Jones, and Morgan Stanley, with Ameriprise as “most improved.”
Fees are clear and understandable: Somewhat concerningly, there is no “Top Performer” in the category, but Prudential is most improved.
Understand ‘very well’ how the firm earns money (pricing measurement): Charles Schwab, E*Trade, Morgan Stanley, TD Ameritrade are Top Performers. Most Improved are JP Morgan Chase (NYSE: JPM), Morgan Stanley, TIAA and USAA.
- MORE ON THE CLIENT EXPERIENCE: How the ‘Consumer Experience’ Fares in 401k Advice
With more than 20 years serving financial markets, John Sullivan is the former editor-in-chief of Investment Advisor magazine and retirement editor of ThinkAdvisor.com. Sullivan is also the former editor of Boomer Market Advisor and Bank Advisor magazines, and has a background in the insurance and investment industries in addition to his journalism roots.
