Survey Results - 2004
Level of Service:
94% of respondents were either totally or pretty much satisfied with all levels of service.
In particular, over 90% were totally satisfied with:
Quickness to return phone calls;
Quickness to answer e-mails; and,
Professionalism.
Trustworthiness got 86% total satisfaction.
Knowledge and Expertise was the next most highly rated with 83% total satisfaction.
The lowest level of satisfaction was attributed to Frequency of Written Communications with 48% totally satisfied, 46% pretty much satisfied and 6% only sort of satisfied.
Investment performance:
Here too, the majority of respondents, 65% in all, were either totally or pretty much satisfied at all levels.
In particular, My Understanding of Your Risk Tolerance got 63% total satisfaction while 37% were pretty much satisfied. Results for Overall Investment Strategy Recommended were very similar.
As for the Performance of your portfolio overall and The volatility in your investments, the results were similar: 7% were totally satisfied; 54% pretty much satisfied; 36% sort of satisfied and 3% not at all satisfied.
Interestingly enough, this concords very closely with the results received with the last survey 4 years ago. In other words, there has been no real change in satisfaction with investment performance despite the very difficult period we experienced in stock markets from 2000-2002.
In terms of anticipated rates of return over the next 5 to 10 years, 52% of respondents expected to receive 7% to 10%, while 42% expected 5% to 7%.
A strong majority, 80% in total, indicated interest in ethical or environmentally friendly investments. Respect for both the environment and employees constituted the two issues in ethical investing that were most-frequently mentioned.
Financial goals:
In response to the question “What does money mean to you? ”, there were as many answers as participants in the survey. Having said that, a number of ideas were recurrent. Here are the top ten:
- Security (55%)
- Freedom (39%)
- Independence (28%)
- Comfort (26%)
- Retirement (21%)
- Travel (20%)
- Necessity (17%)
- Quality of Life (14%)
- Work (14%)
10-Well being (14%)
Some noteworthy individual responses were: “ A paradox of good and evil”; “Energy”; “ Dehumanization”; and “ Opportunity ”.
In response to the importance of specified financial goals, there was a degree of interest in just about all the goals listed. But, some goals clearly predominated for the group as a whole. These were:
- Financial Independence (76%)totally interested!
- A comfortable, worry- free retirement (72%)totally interested!
- Improved Quality of Life (65%)totally interested!
- Reducing Stress over Money Matters (65%)totally interested!
- Reducing Taxes(45%)totally interested!
The vast majority of respondents are charitable givers - wow! In total, 68% gives on a regular basis to one or more charities, while 28% gives infrequently and only when solicited. What was of particular interest to me is that these responses came from participants from diverse economic and cultural backgrounds.
As for estate planning concerns, 24% of respondents do not have a will. Although this is somewhat shocking to me as your financial planner, this result is still far below the national average.
A majority of 55% did not have a mandate in case of incapacity or did not know what this was - even more of a shock!
7% do not have disability insurance in case of an accident or illness, but most of these respondents do not need such insurance.
As for the most important reason you choose to do business with me, there was again a great variety of answers. Trust was certainly a common theme, as well as Quality of references and Competence.
Some of the more significant responses for me personally included:
“ Vous êtes une personne très dynamique. ”
“…votre intelligence et votre sens pratique. ”
“…pour les conseils et les valeurs qui rejoignent les miennes. ”
“ Because you are the most efficient, professional, friendly and helpful advisor…you seem to really care for me, my needs as a person, not just a client.”
Lastly, ALL respondents, that is 100%, indicated they were absolutely likely to recommend my services. Guess I cannot ask for more than that!… thank you !!