Understanding Shareholders' Use of Information and Advisers (pdf)

More than 60 percent of respondents whose primary financialadviser is a full-service broker or a financial planner indicatedthat the value provided by their adviser was excellent orvery good. In contrast, more than half of respondents workingwith bank representatives and insurance agents described theiradviser relationship as good (Figure 15). 6Respondents who accept advice and purchase recommendationsfrom a financial adviser placed greater value on theadviser relationship than did respondents who treat advisers asordertakers. Seventy-two percent of respondents who effectivelydelegate all fund purchase decisions to an adviser ratedthe value they receive from their primary investment professionalas excellent. In contrast, 17 percent of respondents whoonly use their advisers to place purchase orders considered thevalue of this relationship to be excellent. The majority ofrespondents who use a primary financial adviser as an ordertakerrated the value of this relationship as either good ormarginal (see Figure 46 in Appendix B).FIGURE 15Value Shareholders Associate with Primary Financial Adviser(percent of respondents who had consulted a professional financial adviser)All RespondentsPrimary Professional Financial AdviserWho Had Consulteda Professional Full-service Financial Bank InsuranceFinancial Adviser Broker Planner Representative AgentExcellent value 40 42 43 26 33Very good value 22 20 25 15 14Good value 30 27 27 55 53Marginal value 5 10 1 4 0Poor value 3 1 4 0 0Number of respondents 570 232 189 14 1 30 11Small sample size.6Although the sample size for respondents with bank representatives as their primary financial adviser is small, the findings remain noteworthy.18