A new survey reveals that many Americans put great trust in their advisers, despite how they may be portrayed in the media. In fact, the John Hancock Trust Survey™ found that investors have a higher level of trust in their financial advisors than in their primary doctor.
Investors surveyed said they “trust strongly” their advisor (84 percent), followed by primary doctor (79 percent) and accountant (74 percent). Now this may come as a surprise to some, but the results actually track consumer complaint statistics. Only 3% of advisers receive serious complaints during their careers, while 5% of doctors face lawsuits every year.
The survey also offers helpful insight into how advisers can improve relationships. Respondents rated clear explanations of investment recommendations and being knowledgeable and timely about products and trends as the most important (both 54 percent) ways to build trust, followed by disclosure on how the advisor is compensated (51 percent) and the speed of getting answers to questions (49 percent). Factors such as user-friendly tools and calculators (16 percent), the website (11 percent), and, quite surprisingly to me, involvement in the local community (five percent) were at the bottom of the list.
Listen to this! How do you really get on an investor’s bad side? Being difficult to contact or unresponsive was the reason most often cited for lack of trust in a financial advisor, followed by bad investment advice and lacking a personalized approach. I would take this as great news as any less than perfect score on the responsiveness side is easy to fix, practice management-wise.
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