In this, the 20th year of J.D. Power’s annual Full-Service Investor Satisfaction Study, UBS has taken the 2022 honors as the highest-ranking firm in overall satisfaction, displacing 2021’s highest-ranking firm, Edward Jones, which fell to a tie for No. 9 with Ameriprise in this year’s rankings.
In turn, Vanguard rose from No. 11 to the No. 2 spot in the rankings, followed by Charles Schwab at No. 3 (having risen from 10th on the 2021 study).
Among its top findings, J.D. Power found that “the industry continues to make little or no progress on its core value proposition: delivering comprehensive advice based on a deep understanding of individual clients,” according to its announcement.
Further, J.D. Power found that just “14% of investors evaluated in the study receive the level of comprehensive advice from their primary financial advisor as defined by J.D. Power criteria, which include making recommendations in a client’s best interest; understanding their goals and needs; and having a documented financial plan.”
Other key findings in the 2022 study are that the investments many firms have made in their digital technology over the past few years are starting to pay off.
Specifically, investor satisfaction with digital channels saw the largest year-over-year improvement of any single factor in the study, according to the firm, having risen 26 points (on a 1,000-point scale).
Even so, while the firm noted that 51% of full-service investors strongly agree that their advisor provides them with comprehensive advice that addresses all their wealth management needs, only 26% within that group were experiencing “a level of comprehensive advice as defined by J.D. Power criteria.”
Advisors can take heart though, in the finding that those 26% receiving comprehensive advice are sticky. A full 76% of them said they “definitely will not” be switching investment firms in the next year.
The study was fielded from November 2021 through January 2022 and is based on responses from 4,396 investors who work directly with a dedicated financial advisor or team of advisors.
