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.
Published or updated September 20, 2006. If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to the RSS feed or receive daily emails. Follow @flexo on Twitter and visit our Facebook page for more updates.
Points: ♦101,336
Rank: Platinum
About the authorRank: Platinum
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
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.