by Tom Bradley

If you’re a Steadyhand client, you might have found my recent National Post article about year-end reporting to be confusing. I say that because much of what I wrote about doesn’t apply to you. That’s because we’re different than 99% of the industry — we have no problem being transparent with our clients.

As a follow-up, let me make a few comments that will hopefully answer some of the questions you may have.

• Our statements hit your email box on January 8th. We endeavour to deliver your statement and the accompanying Quarterly Report to you approximately five business days after quarter-end.
  
• We don’t provide the Annual Report that I referred to in the article. That’s because our quarterly statements already have all the required information (and much more) on fees and returns.
  
• The fee we show you on page 2 of your statement (in percentage and dollar terms) includes everything, including sales taxes. There are no additional administration or account fees, transfer fees, transaction charges and certainly no commissions.
  
• When it comes to questions about fees, you’ll never hear us hesitate, obfuscate or tell you they’re not important.
  
• As for your personal investment returns, they’re shown after fees in both percentage and dollar terms. They go back to when you became a client.
  
• We don’t vacillate between what we think is important. We always guide you to the longest return number you have (even if it’s not the highest return on the page). In our Quarterly Report, the 10-year and ‘Since inception’ returns are shaded for emphasis.
  
• At the account and consolidated level, we provide you with your personal asset mix. Because most of our funds own more than one asset class, we calculate the numbers by drilling down through the funds you own.
  
• We offer new clients the chance to do a quick phone call to walk through their first statement.
  
• We always want you to open your statement and get an update on fees, returns and asset mix, even if it was a tough year like 2018.

Numerous times in the article I suggest that investors will need to ask for more information and explanation. We welcome enquiries about our statements. If there’s something that isn’t clear, don’t hesitate to call us at 1-888-888-3147.