Where do investors prefer to get their advice? Interesting answers emerge in a gallup.com piece by Jeffrey M. Jones. He writes that “U.S. investors see online and digital investment tools as complements to the advice they get from a personal financial adviser. Nearly two in three investors say they prefer to get financial advice from both sources, including 39% who want advice to come mostly from advisers and 26% who want it to come mostly from digital tools.
Other excerpts from his article:
“While fewer investors want to stick to a single source of financial advice, many more favor using just an adviser (23%) than favor relying solely on digital tools (9%).
“The results are based on the May 22-31 Wells Fargo/Gallup Investor and Retirement Optimism Index survey. For this survey, investors are defined as U.S. adults who have at least $10,000 invested in stocks, bonds or mutual funds, or in a self-directed IRA or 401(k).
“Although most investors like using both advisers and digital tools, they clearly tilt in favor of human advice. A combined 62% prefer getting financial advice exclusively (23%) or mostly (39%) from a personal financial adviser, whereas a combined 35% prefer mostly (26%) or exclusively (9%) digital advice. Also, when asked to choose between three sources of advice, 50% opt for a strong relationship with a financial adviser, 24% for access to state-of-the-art online or digital investing tools, and 19% for access to on-call financial advisers.
“Despite these preferences, investors widely use digital investment sources, with three-quarters saying they use digital tools a lot (19%) or a little (57%). Eighty-five percent of investors report that their primary financial institution offers a variety of online investing tools and services.
“Also, investors are just as likely to say digital sources are important as they are to say this about a personal financial adviser when asked to rate each item separately. Specifically, 71% say access to online or digital investing tools is very or somewhat important to them, while 70% say the same about having a strong relationship with a personal financial adviser. Having on-call access to financial advisers or having a trusted friend or family member as an adviser is less important to investors.
“Digital Advice Has Greater Reach among Younger Investors
“Investors as a whole tend to skew older, but within the investor group, younger investors are more likely than older investors to use digital sources of investment advice, to rate them as important, to say they prefer to use them over other potential sources and to prefer a mixture of digital and human sources of advice.
• “Eighty-four percent of investors younger than 50 use digital sources of investment advice a lot or a little, compared with 69% of those aged 50 and older.
• “Whereas 61% of older investors say access to digital sources of advice is important to them, a much higher 83% of younger investors rate such access as important.
• “Seventy-five percent of younger investors prefer a mix of digital and human sources of investment advice, compared with 57% of older investors. Older investors (30%) are twice as likely as younger investors (15%) to want financial advice entirely from a financial adviser.”