The communication between an investor and his or her advisor is a key component of a successful and long-term relationship, but investors are sometimes critical of the communication tools advisors use to build that relationship.

A new Spectrem research report of wealthy investors – Relationships with Advisors – shows that less than 60 percent of investors consider any of the communication tools used by investors to be of “excellent’’ quality.  

The communication tools in question include account statements, face-to-face meetings with advisors, the financial plan, access to the firm’s management or experts, newsletters and blogs.

An “excellent’’ rating was hard to come by, as only 58 percent of Mass Affluent investors - those with a net worth between $100,000 and $1 million Not Including Primary Residence - found their account statements  to be “excellent” (although “account statements” got the best grade of all communication tools). Fifty-six percent of Millionaire investors (those with a net worth between $1 million and $5 million NIPR) graded their account statements as excellent.

Fifty-four percent of Mass Affluent investors said that face-to-face meetings with advisors were excellent and 55 percent of those meetings with Millionaire investors were excellent.  All other communication tools dropped below 50 percent excellent.

In regards to the written word, newsletters were deemed “excellent’’ by only one-quarter of investors (25 percent Mass Affluent, 23 percent Millionaire). Even worse were blogs, with only 10 percent of blogs being deemed excellent by Mass Affluent investors and only 9 percent deemed “excellent’’ by Millionaire investors.

Very few investors rated advisor communication tools as poor, with overall percentages always ranging around 5 percent or below. There are, however, differences in some categories, and age often has a lot to do with the differences.

Seven percent of all investors think advisor newsletters are “poor’’ and that number jumps to 14 percent of investors aged 44 and under. Again, overall only 5 percent of Mass Affluent investors consider their access to top management or experts is poor, but 12 percent of investors aged 44 and under believe their communication with top management is poor.

Blogs are disrespected, as 23 percent of all Mass Affluent investors consider them “poor’’ and that percentage is almost doubled (43 percent) among investors 65 years of age and older.