On Thursday afternoon at the 2011 Options Industry Conference, the Options Industry Council (OIC) released the results of its financial advisors study.?
Named the Financial Advisor Benchmark Study, it found that options usage among advisors is on the rise and those who use options tend to have more assets under management than non-users.?
In 2009,?OIC began educating financial advisors through its Financial Advisor education program?and in late 2010, they initiated plans to review options usage in this group by commissioning Bellomy Research, Inc. to conduct a study. Data was gathered by online questionnaires of more than 600 financial advisors across the United States.?
Eric Cott, OIC’s Director Financial Investor Education, noted three key discoveries from the study:
- Nearly half (48 percent) of financial advisors used options in the last year for their clients.
- More than a third of financial advisors who use options increased their use of options over the past few years.
- One in three say they intend to increase options usage going forward.
OIC expressed pleasant surprise at the large number of financial advisors using options and said they’re encouraged that this number will continue to grow. The desire for options education was a recurring theme found in the study noted Cott, who said they look forward to advancing their educational efforts to meet the needs of this enthusiastic group.
In addition, OIC highlighted these additional nuggets from the comprehensive study:
- Financial advisors found that options are an enhancement to their practices and it is an added value to their clients.
- By adding options to their clients’ portfolios, their businesses have grown.?
- Advisors who use options for their clients’ portfolios are most likely to be found at either regional broker dealers or wirehouses.?
- Financial advisors who use options for their clients are either very or extremely confident in their understanding of them.
- Income generation and hedging are the primary reasons that brokers are using options, along with market conditions and client requests. ?
To learn more about this study, please visit OIC’s website .
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