Investors Say Trust Most Important Trait for Finan

In August 2002, S&P and BusinessWeek, co-sponsored this second wave of a study to assess investment outlooks, plans and attitudes toward financial advisors, and sources of information used to make investment decisions. S&P and BusinessWeek conducted a similar survey in November 2001. Both organizations plan to continue the survey on an ongoing basis.

"Investors who have financial advisors tend to be more conservative in their approach to investing than they were a year ago," said Kenneth Ennis, managing director, Investment Services, S&P. "We also see that since last year, investors are diversifying their choices, with increased interest in mutual funds, annuities, money market accounts and the like compared to individual stocks."

Spotlighting an opportunity for advisors to strengthen their relationships with clients, 65% of investors said they are concerned about the objectivity of investment advisors' recommendations.

A total of 1,764 individuals participated in this survey, of which 84% were male and 16% female; and 38% have financial advisors. Demographically, the study group of individual investors is more affluent than the general population — the median household income is $110,000, and the median age was 48.