In an incredibly unscientific web poll, Yahoo Finance discovered (as of 11:12 pm last night) only 36% of the 2,200+ respondents—Yahoo Finance readers probably already biased towards the financially savvy—use a financial advisor. Almost the same amount (35%) say they do not take advantage of the help from a professional.
The remaining 30% (I like a poll that measures 101% of the sample population) are former clients of advisors, but have discontinued purchasing the services when they discovered the advice given was not objective.
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I think its interesting and telling that almost as many people from this group have used them but stopped because of being given unobjective advice. I bet a large portion of those were commission based advisors.
I’d rather to say the poll is not objective.
Any web poll has to be taken with a grain (or more) of salt… The web is where Hank the Angry, Drunken Dwarf can be voted one of People’s Most Beautiful People.
Hello,
Regarding the comment “I bet a large portion of those were commission based advisors,” honestly, it doesn’t matter if your advisor is a fee-based advisor or a transaction (commission) based advisor, if he or she works for a large global investment house. I was a former Private Wealth Manager for many years at two Fortune 500 companies in some of the largest markets in the U.S. – Los Angeles and Beverly Hills. Large global investment firms have their own agenda that will never be aligned with the interests of their private clients. Whether an advisor is a transaction or fee-based advisor is irrelevant because if he/she wants to move up that corporate ladder they must always push the company’s agenda first, with their clients’ best interests a very distant second priority.