People trust their financial advisor more than their primary doctor, according to a recent survey of investors by John Hancock Financial.
When asked to rate how much they trusted professionals such as financial advisors, primary doctors, accountants, contractors/handymen and real estate agents, 84% of those surveyed said they strongly trusted their advisors. That was followed by doctors (79%), accountants (74%), contractors (52%) and real estate agents (43%).
When the respondents were asked what was most likely to win their trust, 54% of them said they wanted advisors who offered clear explanations of investment recommendations. Fifty-four percent also said that advisors earned their trust by being knowledgeable about products and trends, while 51% said the advisor won trust by disclosing how he or she was compensated. Forty-nine percent said that the most important trust factor was that advisors quickly answer questions.
It was much less important that an advisor was recommended by friends or family (only 21% of the respondents said it was), or that the advisor had user-friendly tools and calculators (only 16% chose this), had an informative Web site (only 11%), or was involved in the local community (only 5%).
On the flip side, 25% of the respondents said that the biggest reason they lost trust was that the advisor was hard to contact or was unresponsive. Another 13% said bad investment advice caused them to lose trust, while 12% said the advisor lacked a personal approach.
The John Hancock Trust Survey was conducted in April and polled 1,005 investors with at least $100,000 in household income and $200,000 in assets.