Investors, Their Advisors and the Virus

In times of dire financial situations, the relationship between a financial advisor and a client investor can be either strengthened or strained.

During the global pandemic of the coronavirus, it seems the more positive result has occurred.

According to Spectrem’s three-month study Corona Crash: What Advisors Should Be Saying To Investors Now*, there has been frequent communication between most investors and their advisor, and the clients have come away with a positive attitude toward those communications.

Seventy-three percent of all investors have had conversations with their advisor about how to react to the economic plunder of the coronavirus. Thirty-nine percent were told by their advisor to take no action, and that suggested behavior was followed not just by clients but by some of the more famed investors in America, including Carl Icahn, who did not sell any stocks as a result of the coronavirus.

Investors were asked to offer reviews of their advisor performance during the time of the coronavirus, and only 13 percent criticized their advisor by saying they should have been more attuned to the impact of the virus. Only 7 percent said they would have been better served by having a different financial advisor than the one they have worked with through the last three months.

Those low percentages indicate that investors are generally satisfied with the performance of their advisor. But some investors are more than satisfied; 37 percent indicated that their respect for their advisor had grown as a result of their performance during this coronavirus.

While almost 40 percent of investors were advised to hold steady with their asset allocations as the stock market attempted to recover from its biggest losses since the Great Recession, some investors decided to make some moves. The Spectrem report shows that there was more buying of equities than selling; 24 percent of investors bought equities through the last three months compared to only 16 percent who sold equities.

Related: Investor Confidence Nudges Upward