Defined Contribution Pension Plan statements offer most dynamic personalized
messaging and goal based reporting

TORONTO, Dec. 15 /CNW/ - Dalbar recently released results from its much anticipated Trends and Best Practices in Defined Contribution Pension Plan Statements report.  This industry segment recorded the highest industry average among all other segments evaluated this year by Dalbar, such as the mutual fund, managed portfolio, and brokerage industries. 

In keeping with the objective to promote the highest standards in client reporting, Dalbar's investor statement evaluation criteria underwent a comprehensive review and update this past year.  Evolving consumer expectations, changing economic climates, and the advent of new technologies were factored into the update in a bid to raise the level of quality offered by Canadian defined contribution pension plan statements.  More importance was paid to the availability of statements with Accessible formats, especially relevant to the pension industry.

With redesigned statements from Desjardins and Standard Life leading the way, the defined contribution pension plan industry continues to be a source of highly innovative statement features.  This is the only industry to implement targeted and client-personalized messaging on a wide scale, as well as introduce goal-tracking features onto the statement.

The top three ranked firms from this year's study were:

Rank

Company

Score

DALBAR Designation

1

Desjardins Financial Security

85.55

Excellent

2

Standard Life

83.75

Excellent

3

Sun Life Financial

83.10

Excellent

Industry Benchmark

76.72

As the industry benchmark indicates, the industry displayed a consistently high level of service quality with regard to important account information such as account summary, personal rates of return, and transaction history.  In addition, a wealth of value-added information was provided, such as benchmarking, goal-based performance reporting, and customized messaging.  The industry demonstrated that statements with a high degree of investor specificity are implementable, providing firms with the ability to engage investors in ways that generic and basic statements cannot.

Anita Lo, Dalbar's Vice President of Canadian Strategy comments, "the results from this year's Defined Contribution Pension Plan study far exceeded our expectations confirming that plan providers are following through on their commitment to improving the participant experience." She continues, "Dalbar applauds the leaders for their innovative content and design, these best-in-class designs will help keep plan participants engaged and informed about their pensions in the years to come."    

To purchase a copy of Dalbar's 2010 Trends and Best Practices in Defined Contribution Pension Plan Statements complete with rankings, please contact Jody Bullen at 416.777.1103 ext 225 or [email protected].

About Dalbar Inc.: As the world's premier financial services strategy and operations research firm, Dalbar, Inc. helps leading enterprises develop, build, and operate strong businesses that deliver sustained shareholder value growth.  Dalbar's proprietary business design techniques, combined with its specialized industry knowledge and behavioural research expertise, enable companies to anticipate changes in customer priorities and the competitive environment, and then design their businesses and improve operations to seize opportunities created by those changes.  The firm serves clients in the Americas and Europe.

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