Advisors might be neglecting their own emotional well-being while focusing on their clients, according to a new survey.
In recent years, many advisors have started to focus on their clients’ emotional connection with wealth and the financial wellness of retirement plan participants, but a recent survey of 632 advisors by Northern Trust's FlexShares suggests that they may be forgetting to care for themselves.
For one thing, financial advisors tend to be more stressed than the typical American, with the survey’s respondents reporting that they are 23 percent more stressed than the national average.
According to the survey, these elevated stress levels are largely driven by the challenges involved in growing a financial advisory business, named by 27 percent of the survey as a primary cause of stress. Regulatory scrutiny—even in a world where the specter of the Department of Labor’s fiduciary regulations no longer hangs over the industry—was the second-most common stressor, cited by 19 percent of the survey’s respondents.
Advisors also identified political uncertainty and rising market volatility as additional causes of stress.
While advisors reported feeling slightly less stressed than they did in last year’s survey, when they were 25 percent more stressed than the national average, the frequency with which volatility and the political climate were named as stressors increased.
RIAs operating as fiduciaries were less likely to see fees, margin pressure and regulatory changes as stressors than their peers, the survey found.
Advisors who identified their primary service offerings as “wealth management” or “financial planning” were 31 percent more likely to feel stressed than those who identified solely with “investment management.”
FlexShares also found that advisors implementing stress reduction techniques within the workplace—like time management, delegation and enhancing client relationships—were more likely to reduce stress than those focusing on reducing stress with activities outside of work, like meditation, exercise or leisure activities
The survey was conducted in October and November.