Equity markets might appear unflappable as domestic politics become more turbulent, but advisors are sensing rising tension among their clients.

Advisors are reporting that domestic politics are now causing more sleepless nights for their clients than international politics, according to a recent poll of 218 financial advisors by Wayne, Pa.-based Hartford Funds, even as domestic equity indexes continue to post new record highs amid low volatility.

“The anxiety levels advisors saw from their clients regarding markets in 2008 and 2009 may exist around politics today,” says John Diehl, senior vice president of strategic markets at Hartford Funds. “These anxieties are not yet making their way into investment implications. As soon as volatility picks up, things are going to change.”

While 37 percent of the advisors in Hartford’s survey said that domestic politics were causing their clients anxiety, just 14 percent said that international politics were keeping their clients up at night.

Diehl believes that some anxiety is exacerbated by concerns over high equity valuations and an 8-year-old bull market.

“Politics aside, a segment of the population is thinking that market returns have been so good for so long, we’re due tor a correction,” says Diehl. “You have that feeling of waiting for the other shoe to drop. Then you have the current state of politics, which is being amplified by the 24/7 news cycle. They’re the perfect ingredients for increased anxiety.”

62 percent of advisors believed that client anxiety led to poor financial decisions in the previous 12 months.

The poll, fielded in April, preceded the recent shooting of House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La. and the hotly contested special elections in Georgia and South Carolina, notes Diehl.

Diehl says that advisors should remind their clients that market sentiment is usually more connected with economic outlooks, regulation and investment theory rather than social and political conditions.

“Some of these things tangentally affect investor opinions, not the emotional belief or disbelief in the market and the economy,” says Diehl. “Right now we’re at a time of maximum political volatility and minimum market volatility, and that might be an educational opportunity.

Diehl notes that while President Donald Trump and his administration have actively communicated and reiterated their policy stances and proposals, few have made it into Congress, and even fewer will eventually be passed and signed into law.

Advisors should also draw analogies to other politically divisive periods, like the Vietnam War era, or, for younger clients, the impeachment of President Bill Clinton, says Diehl.

“I think it’s helpful for advisors to acquaint themselves with political and social events and what happened to the markets during and afterward,” says Diehl. “When subsequent political events occur, they become new teaching moments for investors.”

While markets occasionally respond to political turmoil, as they did immediately after the U.K.’s surprise Brexit vote and the 2016 U.S. presidential election, the negativity typically doesn’t last long, notes Diehl.

Advisors are also feeling some anxiety due to political turmoil, with 20 percent reporting that concerns about domestic politics kept them awake at night, and 21 percent naming international politics as an insomnia-causing worry.

Advisors should keep their own anxieties and biases in mind when talking to their clients about politics, says Diehl, and try to keep their own political opinions out of the conversations.

“We find some advisors are very up-front about their political views, and it impacts the kind of clients they do business with,” says Diehl. “Most are better off leaving the partisan political discussions to the side. Most of these issues fall outside of things that impact the portfolios, and the way we live on a day-to-day basis.”

The 24-hour media cycle’s demand for controversial stories to fill time slots and grab attention has led much of the political press to pursue stories that aren’t consequential to most investors, says Diehl. Advisors and their clients are better off focusing on legislation that will directly affect their portfolios, like proposals to reduce the corporate income tax, eliminate estate taxes or reform Social Security.

Advisors in the study were equally split in preference between international and domestic markets, with 39 percent preferring either, and 22 percent either equally confident in both markets or undecided.

To date, most advisors aren’t recommending that clients de-risk their portfolios because of the political situation. While one-third of the respondents were recommending that their clients lower portfolio risk, half of the sample were recommending that clients maintain their current risk levels, and another 17 percent said they are encouraging clients to take on more risk.

Clients, for the most part, want to invest more in the market, according to advisors. Most of the survey’s respondents, 80 percent, said that their clients want to invest more.

“The advisor’s job is to take a rational approach on the other side from investors,” says Diehl. “These emotions are usually queued because the market has been more positive, and clients tend to want to buy high and sell low. Advisors are almost prone to looking at these emotions from a contrarian point of view, clients not so much.”