Pam Krueger, CEO of Wealthramp: "The results of this survey illustrate who these advisors are – true fiduciary financial advisors who are completely bifurcated from sales. What it shows is clients are receiving qualified advice and financial planning instead of product selling."
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (PRWEB) October 26, 2020
You can call the market “wacko” or volatile, but fee-only financial advisors are feeling confident in the plans they put in place with clients and are not making major adjustments to portfolios, even after living through several months of a global pandemic.
Eight out of 10 advisors within the Wealthramp network report that they are not making any adjustments to their clients’ investments during the final quarter of the year or ahead of the election. What’s more, 42% say their clients are ‘not very nervous’ or ‘not at all nervous’ about their portfolios with the upcoming election, adding that their clients tend not to react to short term events. Only 1.5% of advisors say their clients are ‘extremely nervous’ and want to make changes to their portfolios.
These findings come from the second pulse survey from Wealthramp, an SEC-registered referral service, which polled more than 130 fee-only fiduciary advisors within its network to glean advisor insights on election impacts on investing strategies, state of retirement planning, and investor concerns during an unprecedented year.
“The results of this survey illustrate who these advisors are – true fiduciary financial advisors who are completely bifurcated from sales. What it shows is clients are receiving qualified advice and financial planning instead of product selling. And clearly this matters to investors, especially in the current economic environment,” said Pam Krueger, Founder & CEO of Wealthramp. “We see this satisfaction in the overall client retention rates of those surveyed, as well. The majority of advisors report a current client retention rate of above 97%, with not a single advisor in the survey selecting an overall retention rate of below 80%. Americans are increasingly relying on vetted, fee-only financial advisors for assurance on how to protect their finances during a year of challenging headwinds.”
For those advisors who said they are helping clients make adjustments to position their investments through this period of uncertainty, the top cited strategies include: boosting cash levels or cash equivalents (36%); buying more equities to take advantage if/when the market drops (30%); and considering short term volatility protection such as defined outcome ETF, or puts for downside and/or volatility protection (10%).
These strategies address clients’ top-most investing concern right now, which is knowing how to hedge to protect against downside risk. In addition, more than a quarter of advisors report having or maintaining enough cash cushion as the next most important priority among clients – which is consistent with findings reported in April of this year – followed by 13% who say tax strategies in anticipation of potentially higher tax rates are of top concern.
For existing female clients, advisors said a larger percentage of female investors are concerned about having or maintaining enough cash cushion compared to their overall client base (44% vs 27% of overall clients). This focus on financial planning has also been seen in prospective female clients throughout the pandemic, with seven out of 10 financial advisors reporting their most important priority centered on improving their financial stability through personalized plans. Wealthramp recently partnered with Jean Chatzky’s HerMoney.com to build bridges between women and financial advice and help them find the right financial advisor for their investing priorities.
To learn more about the survey findings and access consumer resources around how to find a fiduciary financial advisor, visit http://www.wealthramp.com. For more information on Wealthramp, follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.
About Wealthramp
Wealthramp is an SEC-registered referral service that connects consumers with rigorously vetted and qualified fee-only financial advisors. The company launched the only network of independent, fee-only fiduciary financial advisors expertly vetted by television investor advocate Pam Krueger. Built on the foundation of consumer advocacy and transparency, Wealthramp screens out conflicts of interest and engages only with established fee-only fiduciary advisors who don’t sell products and work solely in the interests of clients. The Wealthramp network serves Americans nearing retirement as well as forward-thinking Gen X and Millennial consumers and consists of independent fiduciaries specializing in holistic financial planning, income strategies, stock-based compensation, special needs planning, and more.
