Broker Monitor’s 2010 Annual Statement Analysis is hot off the press! As in past years, we reviewed the statements from a wide variety of brokerage firms, ranked them and recognized the best in a number of different areas. Overall, Merrill Lynch continues to offer the best client statement in the industry – beating out all other competitors for the fourth year in a row. Both the design and content of Merrill Lynch’s statement remain strong, with excellent account summary details and good use of graphics.

The top five brokerage statements in our analysis belong to Merrill Lynch, UBS, Wells Fargo Advisors, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney (legacy Smith Barney statement) and Charles Schwab. But what exactly makes these statements better than those of their peers? The most important things are:

  • Details, details, details! Detailed content is essential. A good statement should provide a bird’s eye-view of the client’s account, followed by detailed breakdowns of performance, changes in value and asset allocation. Details are also extremely important when listing individual account holdings and activity.
  • Design – But detailed content is not all to consider. A great statement must also be designed well. This includes the actual paper and page format, as well as use of fonts, styles and graphics. Additionally, giving clients the flexibility to customize certain sections of the statement can set a firm apart.

All in all, these five firms do the best jobs at combining the statement features we look for into the best overall packages. While all statements have their strengths and weaknesses, these firms – led by Merrill Lynch – are the ones to beat.