Advisors’ Top Concerns for 2012: Market Volatility, Election Repercussions

While market volatility trumps government policy as the top conversation that advisors are having with clients, advisors are also telling their clients to expect continued volatility throughout next year, according to Russell Investments’ fourth quarter Financial Professional Outlook survey. It also found advisors are concerned about slow growth and expect the 2012 presidential election to influence the markets.

For its quarterly outlook survey, Russell collected the opinions of 313 advisors working for 132 national, regional and independent advisory firms nationwide on topics like market sentiment and market volatility.

Russell’s fourth-quarter survey found that advisors continue to be far more optimistic than investors, although both have become somewhat less optimistic than they were in September. Advisors, the survey found, are optimistic (66%) about the capital markets for the next few years, but they say their clients are not nearly as positive (9%). More than 200 advisors (40%) are telling clients to “expect continued volatility ahead,” Russell notes, to “expect slow growth” (15%), and “expect the election to influence the markets” (13%).