Advisors who use options have larger books of business and tend to be more experienced than advisors that do not use options.
That's the takeaway from a standing-room only breakout session Monday in Boston at the 4th annual Retirement Income Symposium. The session was presented by Eric Cott of the Options Industry Council, an organization created to educate investors and their financial advisors about the benefits and risks of exchange-traded equity options. He was joined by Margaret Rorick, vice president of financial services research for Bellomy Research, whom Cott commissioned for a comprehensive study of how advisors use options, and their contribution to client recruitment and retention.
"The results correlate with Harris Interactive studies of individual investors that find options users are more affluent and more knowledgeable than investors who don't use options," he said.
Cott noted that nearly half (48%) of advisors used options last year, more than one-third increased their use of options over the past few years and one in three say they intend to increase their use going forward.
However, he did add that options users are more likely than nonusers to be found in wirehouses and regional broker-dealers, which he said suggests those brokers and advisors receive more product support than in other advisor channels.
