Easy access to financial advice through the Internet has not diminished U.S. investors' reliance on traditional financial professionals for help with money management, according to a national Capstrat-Public Policy Polling survey released Wednesday, July 21. The results of the survey come in the wake of a global collapse that tarnished major brand names in the financial world, Capstrat said in a statement.
Some two-thirds of survey respondents rated certified public accountants (CPAs) four or five on a five-point scale of reliability. Just over half put banks and financial advisors next in reliability, the former just nosing out the latter.
Only 4% of respondents considered online forums as their "most influential" source of financial advice. This compared with 23% who looked to financial advisors, 17% to banks and 15% to CPAs.
Millennials (respondents aged 18 to 29) are much more likely to look for financial advice online, with 43% in this segment saying they used online forums and 48% designating Google as their most influential financial advisor. In contrast, 10% of respondents older than 65 said they sought financial advice from online forums and a mere 6% considered Google to be most influential.
Women have a much more favorable attitude toward banks than men do. Fifty-nine percent of women respondents consider banks reliable sources of financial information, compared with 43% of men, and 57% said they had used a bank recently, compared with 37% of men who said they had done so. Twenty-two percent of women said they considered banks "most influential," versus 12% of men, whereas 28% of men said they were most influenced by financial advisors, compared with 19% of women.
Other survey findings:
