Covid-19 sent the U.S. economy spiraling into a recession—but it didn’t significantly dent RIA sentiment, according to a new survey.

RIAs have remained optimistic about the economy, financial markets and their businesses even as the pandemic has caused massive disruptions, according to TD Ameritrade’s 2020 RIA Sentiment Survey Mid-Year Update, released today.

Most advisors are also continuing to grow their practices, according to the survey: 40% have reported increases in AUM and revenue, with an average AUM increase of 8.4% and an average revenue increase of 8.45%.

Also, 58% of RIAs reported adding clients the first half of the year, with those who have added clients report having added 6% more clients on average.

Yet most RIAs, 66%, reported that they are not actively recruiting new advisors.

More than three-fifths of the surveyed RIAs, 61%, reported being back to work in the office. Another 9% said they would return after January 1 and 8% said they would return in September or November. But the future was more uncertain for the remaining 22% of the respondents: 8% said they weren’t returning to the office in the foreseeable future, 10% were unsure when they would return to the office and 4% reported having no plans to reopen their office.

Concern about a resurgence of Covid-19 was the leading reason named for preventing staff from returning to the office, named by 42% of the firms. Other reasons mentioned included staff safety and morale, named by 31% of firms; juggling family obligations, named by 28%; waiting for a vaccine, named by 22%; and a preference for their new quality of life, named by 18%.

As the pandemic broke out, 68% of advisors report increasing the frequency of their client communications, and 84% of those surveyed are conducting video conferences with their clients. More than two-thirds of the respondents, 67%, reported video conferencing with their clients at least once a week. As social distancing restrictions are lifted, 56% of the respondents expect to continue their use of virtual meeting and video chat tools.

Advisors reported using other technology-enabled tools to communicate with clients and enhance their practices. For example, 23% of advisors reported using secure texting with their clients. Of these, 81% were already using secure texting before the pandemic, and 19% started using secure texting during the pandemic. Nearly one in five advisors, 19%, were using personalized videos to reach out to clients; 68% started before the pandemic and 32% starting afterwards. Also, 18% of advisors reported using flash briefings to communicate with clients, with 56% before and 44% starting afterwards.

While only 5% of advisors reported using virtual reality-enabled tools, just 20% of those advisors had adopted those tools before Covid-19 and 80% had started using them since the onset of the pandemic.

Advisors are investing in their technology this year, too, with 21% of respondents reporting spending more than expected on client-facing technology and 20% spending more than expected on back-office technology. At the same time, they’re spending less than expected on marketing, 25%; professional development, 24%; and M&A activity, 22%.

When asked about the U.S. economy, just 36% of the surveyed advisors had a somewhat optimistic, optimistic or very optimistic outlook through the end of 2020, but 65% of the respondents were optimistic about the economy’s prospects through the end of 2021. A similar pattern emerged when advisors were asked about the global economy: 24% were optimistic through the end of 2020, but 63% were optimistic through the end of 2021.

The largest cohort of nearly one-third of the advisors, 30%, responded that they were somewhat pessimistic about both the global and the U.S. economies through the end of 2020, while the largest cohorts were somewhat optimistic towards the economy at the end of 2021, with 43% feeling that way about the global economy and 37% feeling that way about the U.S. economy.

A similar pattern emerged when the RIAs were asked about their outlook for U.S. stock market performance – while just 25% expected the value of U.S. stocks to increase through the end of 2020, 62% said that the market would increase in value through the end of 2021.

When asked which issues would have the biggest impact on their client portfolios, the respondents were most focused on “3 Es” – The U.S. Economy, named by 73%; the U..S. presidential elections, named by 70%; and corporate earnings, named by 70%. But more than 50% of the respondents reported being wary of three additional issues: actions by the Federal Reserve, named by 59%; unemployment, named by 53%; and a longer-term public health crisis, named by 52%.

For the report, TD Ameritrade sponsored a survey of 158 RIAs with an average of $234 million AUM. The survey was fielded via email by True North Market Insights between July 14 and July 29..