RIA clients rattled by mercurial markets

Market volatility and risk have overtaken wealth accumulation as the top concern of RIA clients, according to a survey conducted by Cogent Research for Invesco. Among the 206 registered investment advisers surveyed in September, Cogent found that 70% cited market volatility as the top concern among their clients, followed by 23% who placed retirement planning first and just 6% who said wealth accumulation was most important. “Given their clients' current mindset, 45% of RIAs said managing risk is now their top priority in terms of portfolio construction, ahead of wealth preservation (24%), exceeding a performance benchmark (12%) and delivering absolute return (10%),” said Andrew Scherer, managing director of Invesco's RIA division. In terms of portfolio construction, the survey found that RIAs are increasingly blending actively managed products with exchange-traded funds to meet long-term financial needs and to manage risk, Mr. Scherer said. “RIAs indicate that ETFs will represent 22% of client portfolio's, on average, over the next year and 30% of portfolios by 2014,” he said.