December 07, 2011
--- Nearly eight in ten advisers say that they are calling their clients more frequently and are telling them to expect continued economic volatility in 2012. ---
In Russell Investment’s latest quarterly survey of U.S. financial advisers, the Financial Professional Outlook (FPO), advisers were asked what they plan to tell clients in preparation for next year. Forty percent of the comments focused on expectations for continued volatility, followed by slow economic growth (15% of comments).
Sixty-three percent of advisers say that market volatility has been a primary topic of client-initiated conversations over the past three months. Perhaps for this reason, 78% of advisers report increased outbound communications (phone calls) with clients. More than half (52%) are having more client meetings and 49% say they are receiving more inbound calls from clients as well.
The quarterly FPO also asks advisers about their sentiment and what they think their clients’ sentiment is for the capital markets broadly over the next three years. Overall, 66% of advisers report being optimistic about the capital markets, down from 72% in the September 2011 iteration of the survey. With respect to their clients’ perspective, only 9% of advisers feel that clients are optimistic about the capital markets, which reflects a continued decrease over the course of the past year.