Financial advisers say that clients are better off financially than they were three years ago, but they still want President Barack Obama out of the White House.
The latest quarterly survey of advisers by Brinker Capital Inc. found that 64% of the respondents think that their clients are better off than they were at the start of the Obama presidency. But 56% of the 427 advisers surveyed in October said that a second term for the president is their biggest fear for the 2012 election.
According to Brinker president John Coyne, the message is that the adviser community wants the leadership in Washington to focus on a stronger U.S. economy. In fact, 92% of respondents said that if they could tell their favorite candidate to focus on one issue, it would be to improve the economy through job growth.
“Financial advisers are an incredible proxy for investors,” Mr. Coyne said. “They continue to see doom and gloom, and their big anxiety right now is four more years of the current president.”
When advisers were asked which candidate they think is most qualified to lead the U.S. toward recovery and growth, 32% chose Mitt Romney.
“Better than 50% said they want a businessperson in the White House,” Mr. Coyne said.
In terms of what is most responsible for stifling economic growth, the Obama administration was cited most at 34%, followed by partisan politics (24%) and government overregulation (17%).
Although advisers have appreciated the strength of the markets coming off the low of early 2009, just 32% of the respondents think that the markets will perform better next year than they did during Mr. Obama's first three years in office.
When the same question was asked in April, 62% of the respondents said that they thought the markets would do better during his fourth year in office.
Historically, the third year of a president's term is strongest for the stock market. According to the Stock Trader's Almanac, the Dow Jones Industrial Average hasn't finished with a decline in a pre-presidential-election year since 1939, when it was down 2.9%.
Prior to last Wednesday's 490-point rally, the Dow industrials were down less than 1% from the start of the year.
In terms of Mr. Obama's greatest achievements while in office, 81% of respondents selected the killing of Osama bin Laden and other top Al-Qaeda operatives. Economic stimulus and health care each received 7% in the survey.
As for disappointments with the administration, the lack of job creation was selected by 46% of respondents, followed by the inability to reduce the deficit (33%) and an inability to compromise with Congress (12%).
jbenjamin@investmentnews.com
