Financial advisers are considered the most valuable sources of investment information by mutual fund investors.
A survey of 2,000 mutual fund owners performed earlier this year by the Spectrem Group/PSI Global, a Tampa, Fla., market research firm found that 41% of shareholders said advisers were the most valuable sources of information, compared with the fund prospectus (17%), press articles (12%), friends or relatives (7%), on-line services (4%) and fund advertisements (1%).
Forty-six percent of fund owners also said they bought a fund on the recommendation of a financial adviser. Of this group, 40% had investable assets of $400,000 or more. Spectrem Group says an advisers
recommendation was three times more likely to drive a mutual fund purchase than research from other information sources.
