Investors who work with financial advisors feel more secure about their financial wellness and are better prepared to handle financial hardship, according to a survey published by Edward Jones.
The more than 2,000 adults who were surveyed varied in how they defined financial wellness. The biggest percentage, 61%, classified it as having no anxiety over monthly bills, 57% considered it having enough money to take care of their family, while 55% said it was having no debt.
“We don’t want to tell people what it means especially when we’re trying to help them achieve it,” said Meagan Dow, a senior strategist at Edward Jones. “We wanted to know what they thought it meant."
The survey found that 93% of respondents view financial wellness as important.
“It is something people care about and it’s not just a buzz word that the industry is using, but something that resonates with people,” Dow said.
The survey also found that 43% of respondents do not feel financially stable.
About 40% who worked with a financial advisor felt confident about their financial future, according to the study. However, only 18% of those who do not work with an advisor felt confident about their financial future.
“We can see in these results that financial advisors really do better to prepare their clients to weather life’s ups and downs,” Dow said. “But how specifically will be decided by that client’s situation.”
Even though investors might be feeling nervous about their financial futures, they are willing to take steps to improve it, the study found.
Of those surveyed, 49% selected paying off debt as a means to improve their financial wellness, 42% highlighted increasing their income, and 34% selected sticking to a monthly budget.
“Despite people not universally feeling that they’re doing well, we did see a lot of people wanting to take steps to get better and I think that presents a huge opportunity for advisors,” Dow said.
The survey found that 29% have less than $500 in their emergency savings fund, which Edward Jones said should consists of three to six months of living expenses. The survey found that 79% of those who work with an advisor have at least $1,000 in their emergency fund.
The firm is using this latest study to impress upon their advisors the importance of speaking with their clients, Dow said.
“We want to make sure all our financial advisors are looking at the whole picture to help with and serve our clients,” she said.
In conjunction with the survey, the St. Louis-based firm is rolling out a series of resources for advisors to use in their conversations with clients about financial wellness, Dow said.
The resources that the firm is rolling out began soon after the study was released in February and will continue over the next few weeks, according to Dow. They will include research papers, video features, and client reports encouraging advisors to have proper conversations with clients to strengthen their financial wellness.
Morning Consult, a global data intelligence company, conducted the survey with 2,202 adults in early January.