While both registered investment advisors and fee-based advisors are focused on volatility over the next 12 months, investors are more concerned about health care costs and saving for retirement than their advisors may realize.
That's according to Jefferson National's second annual Advisor Authority study, conducted by Harris Poll, which found that advisors' chief concern is volatility — which they say will have an adverse impact across the board. In addition, more than 75 percent expect it to rise.
Investors, on the other hand, may also be worried about volatility, but their primary concerns are about how to protect their assets, save for retirement and address health care costs — as well as what the tax picture will look like in months to come.
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This year's survey expanded its pool of investor respondents to include mass affluent and ultra-high-net-worth individuals, "to help advisors understand their similarities and differences … ." And the study said that advisors might be underestimating their clients' worries, since only the high net worth individuals put volatility at the top of their list of factors that will affect how they invest.
Advisors in the study asked to name their clients' top three concerns over the next 12 months said that saving enough for retirement (40 percent) rates number one.
They followed that with protecting assets (34 percent) and managing volatility (31 percent). In comparison, more high-assets-under-management advisors (37 percent) and high-earning advisors (38 percent) say protecting assets is their clients' number one concern.
Clients, though, responded differently. Protecting assets and coping with the cost of health care tied for first among their concerns, at 30 percent, while saving enough for retirement took second place at 29 percent and taxes came in third at 26 percent. They rated generating reliable income in retirement (21 percent), financing large expenses (15 percent), and financing children's education (14 percent) as more important, or as important, as managing volatility (14 percent).
Oh, and when it comes to the U.S. Department of Labor's new fiduciary standard? It's on investors' radar screens as one of their top three priorities when choosing a financial advisor — along with experience and personalized holistic advice.
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