Wall Street’s rocky start to the year has put investors on edge, and many are worried its wild swings are far from over. According to a new survey, managing volatility is the top concern for financial advisors right now.
John Moninger, managing director at Eaton Vance, told Yahoo Finance’s Seana Smith that the results from Eaton Vance’s ninth Advisor Top-of-Mind Index (ATOMIX) revealed that more than half of advisors reported that their concerns about volatility have grown in the last 12 months.
“This is the first time that we’ve seen fear rising to the top of the list of concerns [that] advisors are having about their clients,” said Moninger. “What’s more concerning is investors. Over 80% of them are motivated by fear. That’s a significant increase from where we were about a year and a half ago when only about 50% of investors were motivated by fear.”
Here are some of the other key findings from the Advisor Top-of-Mind Index:
Fifty-three percent of advisors said clients are concerned about losing money due to volatile markets.
More than half of advisors said they believe domestic issues including Federal Reserve policy and stalled U.S. economic growth will be the primary drivers of volatility for the remainder of 2016.
Sixty-two percent of advisors said clients view market volatility as a risk, not an opportunity.
Forty-five percent of advisors are expecting equity markets to remain bullish over the next quarter.
ATOMIX is based on the findings of a survey of 1,001 financial advisors from a diverse group of companies. The survey was conducted from March 25 to April 18, 2016.
