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Advisor Compensation and Service Levels: Perceptions and Experience of Established Investors

Drew Maresca; Matthew Drinkwater, Ph.D., FSRI, FLMI, AFSI, PCS; Peter DeWitt 2/12/2021

Are investors more satisfied with their full service, fee-based financial advisors than investors working with other advisors?

Summary

While past research has demonstrated the value of advisors to their clients, it is less clear how the different modes of compensation affect clients’ satisfaction with their financial professionals or whether they are more likely to have received formal plans to manage income, expenses, and assets in retirement. This report examines how established investor clients — individuals who are at least 50 years old with household investable assets of $100,000 or more — perceive their full service fee-based advisors, and how that compares to the ways in which other advisors are perceived.

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Industry Issues

  • Investor satisfaction
  • Fee-based vs. commission-based advisors
  • Retirement planning

Methodology

SRI conducted an online survey of 6,200 Americans, fielded in the summer of 2020; results are based on 669 non-retired workers who are at least 50 years old, have household investable assets of $100,000 or more, and work with a financial professional to help make household financial and investment decisions.

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Meet the Project Director

Drew Maresca

Drew Maresca, who joined LIMRA in 2020, is a Research Director within the Secure Retirement Institute (SRI). He oversees studies that develop and execute a portion of the SRI research agenda, focusing on the retail portion of the retirement industry.

Prior to joining SRI, Maresca was a director on the client insights team at UBS; earlier, he launched and oversaw numerous research products at Corporate Insight, which examined retirement plans, workplace benefits, and insurance. Specifically, Maresca has conducted studies on retirement income, financial wellness, HSAs, and the digital experience offered to plan participants and plan sponsors.

Maresca is a graduate of SUNY Oneonta.

Research Director, Retirement Research
LIMRA
DMaresca@limra.com


For more information, please contact DMaresca@limra.com.

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