Surveys are a popular tool in the financial services industry and require participation of financial advisors to share their views on various industry topics. Investment News decided to conduct a survey on advisors, who are the source of many industry survey findings, to paint a portrait of today’s advisors.
“2012 Industry Profiles and Advisers Options”
Invesment News
October 21, 2012
In addition to asking questions at the advisors themselves, the survey also included questions about their firms, clients and political views. Below are some of the top stats from each section of the survey results.
Top 10 Advisors Stats:
- Over 90% are white.
- 84.5% are men.
- 82% have not served in the military.
- 80% are married.
- 75% provide pro-bono financial advice.
- Nearly 75% are religious.
- 67% are “very satisfied” with their career choice.
- 60.1% are between the ages of 50-69.
- 52% donate between 1% and 5% of their gross income to charity.
- 51% are Republicans.
Top 5 Firm Stats:
- 73% did not plan to increase fees in 2013.
- 70% did not add staff in 2012.
- 69% volunteer in their communities.
- 60% do not have a niche practice.
- 41% selected increasing referrals as the most important goal for 2013.
Top 5 Client Stats:
- 82.1% are between ages 50-69.
- 56.2% clients came through referrals.
- 52% communicate most with advisors via phone.
- 31% Selected client relocation as the top reason of why they lost clients during their career.
- 21% have clients with an average over 900k in investable assets
Top 5 Political Stats:
- 88% scored Congress’ performance regarding the economy as poor.
- 71% planned to vote for Mitt Romney.
- 69% are against allowing hedge funds to advertise to the public.
- 56% expect the Bush-era tax cuts will expire.
- 38% have been audited in the past year.
