How Investors and Their Advisers Are Preparing for Midterm Elections

With less than one month until the 2026 midterm elections, many investors are expressing concern about how the results could affect their retirement savings and broader financial outlook.

More than half of investors (56%) surveyed by the Nationwide Retirement Institute, the research arm of the Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co., said the upcoming midterm elections are making them feel more anxious. While feeling those pre-election nerves, investors are also making adjustments to how their nest eggs are invested.

Overall, 40% of respondents said they have made changes to their retirement savings or portfolio in anticipation of the midterms, including 15% who said they moved money into more conservative or lower-risk investments and 13% who said they increased their contributions to take advantage of current economic conditions.

“If investors take a step back and look at the wall of worry that has confronted markets in 2026 leading up to the midterm election, the list is daunting. So, it is no wonder that, with the midterm elections looming, many investors are feeling increasingly anxious,” wrote Mark Hackett, chief market strategist for Nationwide’s investment management group, in an email to PLANADVISER. “While increasing diversification and working with a financial adviser can be prudent steps, reacting emotionally to politics is rarely a sound investment strategy or a financial plan.”

Getting Guidance

A separate report by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Inc., “Expensive Today, Elusive Tomorrow: A Survey About Affordability and the 2026 Election,” painted a different picture, showing that CFPs did not see their clients making rash financial decisions because of the political cycle. Most CFP professionals surveyed—71%—said their clients were not making any financial moves ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

According to Gloria Garcia, a wealth manager at Los Angeles-based LourdMurray who did not work on the CFP study, clients are less likely to react emotionally if they receive proper guidance.

“If they don’t have a financial planner alongside them, they are more reactionary, more impulsive,” Garcia says. “Our main goal … is to help clients really understand when they need to make changes and how much flexibility they have, so every headline doesn’t feel like a threat to their retirement.”

Investors surveyed by Nationwide also showed significant interest in guidance and support from advisers in preparation for the elections. Nearly three-quarters of investors (73%) said they want their adviser to provide guidance about the financial impacts of the midterms on their financial plan.

“While investors may say they are anxious about the election, the subtext is often something much deeper, and it is precisely in these moments that effective communication from advisers can be most valuable,” Hackett wrote. “More often than not, investors are looking for reassurance about how election outcomes could affect their retirement goals, portfolio performance, taxes and overall financial well-being.”

Political Impact

Additionally, advisers surveyed by the CFP Board said financial planning is becoming increasingly complex during the 2026 election cycle.

Most advisers surveyed (87%) said clients who follow election news closely are harder to keep on track with their long-term retirement plans, and 75% said the 2026 midterm election environment is more financially disruptive to client planning than prior election cycles.

Overall, CFP professionals expected minimal economic impact from the November elections. Most (79%) said interest rates would see no significant impact, while 59% said the elections would have no significant impact on the stock market, and 57% did not expect them to make an impact on the U.S. economy.

When it came to specific client finances, CFP professionals maintained a positive outlook on the midterms, though they identified several areas of concern.

For example, 29% anticipated a harmful effect on their clients’ tax burden, compared with only 9% who anticipated a favorable one and 63% who expected no impact. For healthcare costs, 26% expected a negative impact, while 13% anticipated a positive effect.

“Medicare costs are higher than ever. People are aware that long-term-care costs are higher than ever and are trying to plan for longevity as we live longer,” Garcia says. “We have prospecting clients coming in, and their biggest concerns are, ‘What are my premiums going to be? Am I going to be OK?’ … So healthcare in general is … top of mind for clients.”

The CFP Board also found that professionals had similar concerns about cost of living, with 25% expecting a negative effect, 13% anticipating a positive one and the majority not expecting any impact.

Calming Clients’ Anxiety

Ahead of the elections, Hackett said it will be important for advisers to consider how to handle clients with heightened states of anxiety.

“Advisers should focus less on the political outcome itself and more on helping clients separate emotionally charged headlines from long-term investment fundamentals,” wrote Hackett.

According to Nationwide’s survey, 63% of responding advisers said maintaining a client’s investment strategy is often the best course of action during an election year, an 11-percentage-point increase from the 52% of advisers wo said the same in 2024.

Garcia recommends communicating with clients in a direct, jargon-free manner, to avoid any misunderstanding.

“You can’t hit people who are in an emotional state with advice and technicalities and numbers,” she says. “Let’s be curious, let’s meet them where they need to be, and have someone who is an expert in this be a partner alongside them.”

The Harris Poll conducted Nationwide’s survey with 538 advisers and 2,029 adult investors, including 1,518 non-retired investors, from August 24 through September 11. The CFP Board surveyed 440 financial professionals from July 9 through 27.