H&R Block needs sharper marketing, improved client retention and top-notch bank products for the upcoming season, according to the company's new CEO Alan Bennett. Bennett made his points in a letter that was mailed to shareholders this month. Shareholders also received a letter from chairman Richard Breeden, whose strategy led Thomas Bloch, son of the company's founder, to resign from the board of directors and issue a letter critical of the company, particularly its allegedly high fees. Breeden wrote that fee increases are largely driven by tax code complexity.

Marketing in 2010 had an impact, but ultimately not the major one desired in the area of digital tax preparation products. "Our marketing efforts this past tax season led to a 25-percent increase in our website visits, but we did not convert this growth into clients," Bennett wrote. He said the company is redesigning the site to make navigation easier and improve conversion rates.

Without directly responding to Bloch's criticism of the company's retail fees as being too high, Breeden's letter outlined their history and said the net average charge had increased by 71 percent since 2001. Breeden essentially rejected Bloch's point with "Growth in the NAC is a combination of increases in H&R Block's charges, and increasing complexity of returns as a result of tax code changes. There is almost always a good deal of the latter, so price increases are not solely the actions of the Company."

And he addressed turnover, without directly mentioning this summer's departure of CEO Russ Smyth and the company's CFO and chief legal counsel shortly below that. "However, personnel changes occur normally, and perhaps with even greater frequency in companies that are not performing at their best," the chairman commented.