What worries financial advisors these days? The government and the economy come to mind more so than the state of the long-running bull market, according to the most recent Fidelity Advisor Investment Pulse survey released on Monday.
Among the results is that the unsteady political climate and shifting regulations remained advisors top concerns for the first quarter of 2017.
When asked to select among 14 different potential issues of concern, 24 percent of Fidelity’s respondents named topics relating to the government and its interaction with the economy. According to Fidelity, many of these responses specifically focused on the U.S. Department of Labor’s fiduciary rule, which is slated to become applicable on June 9, despite being subjected to numerous challenges in court from the administration of President Donald Trump and from Congress.
Concerns about the government and the economy declined from the fourth quarter of 2016, when they were named by 32 percent of Fidelity’s respondents.
Portfolio management was the second biggest topic of concern for advisors, named by 18 percent of the respondents, a decline from the fourth quarter of 2016 when 26 percent of respondents named portfolio management as a concern.
Fidelity found that interest rate policy vexed 16 percent of its respondents, enough for the third largest concern for advisors in the first quarter of 2017. Risk and volatility ranked fourth, named by 14 percent of the respondents, and practice management ranked fifth, named by 13 percent.
Inflation remains of little concern to advisors, as only three percent of the respondents named it as an area of focus. Fidelity points out that 3 percent is still the highest level of concern regarding this topic since the first quarter of 2014.
Despite the potential for tax policies and fiscal stimulus to kick off a jump in inflation, advisors still rate inflation as one of the topics of least concern or interest, tied for last with alternative investments.
Fidelity argues that though inflation has slowed since the early 1980s, advisors should be wary because an aging population and protectionist trade policies could be catalysts for higher inflation.
Fidelity has been conducting its quarterly Advisor Investment Pulse survey for the past three years. The surveys ask a group of more than 1,000 advisors about their concerns throughout each year via an online survey comprised of open-ended questions.