Donald Trump builds lead as top pick for president as field narrows: InvestmentNews poll

Donald Trump has built his lead and is still the frontrunner in an InvestmentNew poll asking readers who they will vote for to be the next U.S. president — it’s a spot he’s held for months, according to another survey done in February that showed he was in first place.

At the end of last year, he was ranked third among advisers’ picks — behind Marco Rubio and then Hillary Clinton.

Mr. Trump is the presumptive Republican nominee, now that all of his competitors have dropped out. Meanwhile, Ms. Clinton and Bernie Sanders are duking it out for the Democratic votes. In this week’s InvestmentNews poll, 56% of the more than 600 readers who responded said they were voting for Mr. Trump, followed by 30% for Ms. Clinton and 5% for Mr. Sanders. An additional 9% said they do not plan to vote in the election.

Mr. Trump has also recently laid out potential economic plans, which include buying Treasury securities at a discount and repaying the debt in eight years. As for taxes, Mr. Trump wants cuts for all Americans although he adds that wealthy folks like himself are willing to pay higher taxes. But critics say his tax policies would reduce federal revenue and increase the national debt.

Financial advisers are unfazed by a possible Donald Trump presidency. As seen by the polls, many even prefer it.

Although Steve Alsdorf, a financial and investment adviser at Core Values Investment Management in Englewood, Colo., said he has reservations about Mr. Trump, he does know one thing he’d do very well.

“He’d surround himself with many capable people,” Mr. Alsdorf said. “I think he’s very smart like that.”

Mr. Alsdorf cites the decades of experience Mr. Trump has in the real estate business, including the people he had to have worked with to find, construct and negotiate property. If he were elected and there were cabinet secretaries not doing a satisfactory job, Mr. Alsdorf said he wouldn’t be surprised if he fired them.

“I think it will be a really different attitude if he’s elected,” Mr. Alsdorf said.

Mr. Trump’s business background and the fact that he is “not a politician” were some of the top reasons advisers said they’d vote for him in the February poll. They also said he’d bring change and “get things done.”

The Department of Labor’s fiduciary rule, which require all advisers act in their clients’ best interest on retirement accounts, might also have something to do with the way advisers are voting.

David Schneider, an adviser with Schneider Wealth Strategies, said financial professionals may be voting for Mr. Trump to stop the fiduciary rule.

“A Republican candidate is more likely to be sympathetic to the argument as to why these new regulations should be rolled back, whereas it is clear that Clinton and I believe Sanders would support a fiduciary standard for all,” Mr. Schneider said.

Not everyone is for a potential Trump presidency, however.

“There will be so much instability and lack of clarity if Donald Trump were to become president,” said Richard Magarian, an adviser in Berkeley, Calif. If Ms. Clinton were president, “the industry would chug along as it has.”

Mr. Magarian favors Mr. Sanders for president. He said the impact would be hardest for large corporations and tax policies but that overall Mr. Sanders would push a new dynamic, socially and politically, on the country.

As far as affluent investors are concerned, Mr. Trump and Ms. Clinton are neck-and-neck. A Global Wealth Monitor survey of 774 completed interviews in April 2016 found 32% of affluent households, with more than $100,000 of investable assets, are more likely to vote for Ms. Clinton and 25% for Mr. Trump. When asked about growing the U.S. economy, 31% of the respondents said Mr. Trump would do the best job, 28% said Ms. Clinton and 8% said Mr. Sanders. For regulating Wall Street, 24% said Ms. Clinton, 23% chose Mr. Trump and 21% said Mr. Sanders.

When asked who would ensure the country would be a leader in the global economy, 31% chose Ms. Clinton, 28% said Mr. Trump and 9% said Mr. Sanders.