June 9, 2018
OVERALL INVESTOR EXPERIENCE
1. How do you pick funds? What information do you want to know when you make an investment in a fund? What publications or websites do you review? What tools, online or otherwise, do you use? Do you look at the SECs website?
I rely on my financial adviser.
I never heard of the SEC until today.
2. Do you read current fund disclosure documents? Do you understand them? Is there information you do not receive from the fund that you would like to get?
I do not read them. I receive too much information. It is too long and too complex. What am I supposed to do with a very long list of holdings and financial statements?
3. How well do current fund disclosures (such as a summary prospectus, prospectus, or shareholder report) help you pick an investment? Is it easy to compare different funds? Are there technology-based tools that could make fund comparisons easier? What helpful features do those tools have?
I do not use them.
4. Do you use the advice of a financial professional? Does a financial professional's help affect whether and how you use fund disclosures?
Yes.
DELIVERY
5. How do you prefer to receive communications about fund investments? For example, do you prefer mail delivery, email, website availability, mobile applications, or a combination?
E-mail. But but keep the information I need succinct and in the body of the email.
6. What types of fund information do you prefer to access electronically? What types of fund information do you prefer to receive in paper? Are there other wayssuch as by video or audio, you would like to receive fund information?
The complex stuff I do not understand.
7. How can the SEC better use technology and communication tools to help investors focus on important fund information?
Give funds the flexibility to use technology and prescribe general principles to keep them honest.
DESIGN
8. Is there too much technical writing in fund disclosure? Would you prefer more tables, charts, and graphs? Would these graphic displayes be in addition to, or in place of, text-heavy disclosures?
Yes. I am well-educated and I do not understand a lot of what is in these documents.
Stop showing us how smart fund people are, and write for your audience.
9. Do you prefer to receive shorter 'Summary' disclosures, with additional information available online or upon request?
Yes. Wholeheartedly, yes.
10. Should fund disclosures be more personalized? For example, should disclosures show the amount of fees you paid or your actual investment returns? If so, how?
Yes
CONTENT
11. Do fund disclosures make the fund's strategies and the level of risk clear? How can funds improve these disclosures? Would a risk rating, such as a numerical or graphical measure of risk, be helpful?
Yes, make it easy for us to see the level of risk.
Even moreso, advisers should be required to put a risk rating on my entire portfolio.
Forget fund disclosures, we should be provided performance, fee, holdings, and risk information across our entire portfolio.
12. Fund fees and expenses can significantly affect a fund's investment returns over time. Do you think funds clearly disclose their fees and expenses? How could funds improve the disclosure of fees and expenses? Would a comparison of your funds fees against other funds fees help?
Yes.
.. and make sure any comparison is apples to apples. There are too many different fee structures out there. When my adviser explained them to me and aksed me to pick one, I did not know what to do.
13. Do you consider the past performance of a fund when making an investment decision? How could we improve the presentation of performance information?
Yes.
FINAL THOUGHTS
14. Aside from this questionnaire, are there other ways the SEC can engage with investors, like you, on key topics? Is there anything else you would like to tell us?
Make more information available to those who do not speak english as their primary language.
Disclosures are tough enough for native English speakers. My parents invest and do not speak English fluently. They use an adviser that speaks spanish. However, every document they are asked to sign or are provided is in English.
Either provide them in another language, or put it in a format so folks can use tools like Google Translate.