Fidelity Poll Shows Advisors Shifting From Firm Cuts to Growth in 2010

Still, only 2% of brokers and RIAs said that cutting non-essential costs would be the biggest profitability driver this year versus 27% in 2009, according to the Fidelity poll that drew an average of 186 respondents per question.

Fidelity spokesman Steve Austin explained the discrepancy by noting that while brokers and advisors are still looking for cost savings, the vast majority aims to accelerate growth with new clients and more hiring. "As the economy recovers, advisors see an opportunity to grow their businesses more successfully than they could at any other time since the market crisis," Austin said in an e-mail interview.

One surprise finding of the poll taken during the April 26-27 forum in Naples, Florida, was that only 11% of RIAs and broker/dealers believed that their clients' biggest financial concern is to minimize taxes. In the second half of the year, however, brokers and advisors say they will focus more attention on taxes as they prepare for their clients' year-end planning and anticipate potential tax changes.

Rather than worrying about taxes, clients are thinking about the cost of retirement, the poll showed. More than half of brokers and advisors, 52%, believed that investors' biggest concerns are outliving their retirement savings, followed by 35% pointing to the recovery of losses from the 2008 and 2009 financial crisis.