RJ and Makay

Financial professionals might be interested in an InvestmentNews report about a poll by Advisors Trusted Advisor, which recently uncovered some surprising trends in the financial advice industry. Of the 262 advisors polled, more than half were at fee-only firms, a quarter worked as independent reps, and the rest were employed by wirehouses, brokerages, banks or insurers. Survey participants had a median of about $400 million in assets under management.

Here are the seven trends the poll revealed, in descending order, just as described by InvestmentNews:

Independent financial advisors (FAs) are generally feeling very good about the securities markets and economy, suggests a recent survey by Charles Schwab.

Among more than 1,300 independent FAs surveyed, 77% expected the S&P 500 to rise in the next six months — a 14-point improvement since the last Schwab survey in July. Similarly, 56% of respondents described themselves as bullish on the stock market six months out while only 10% said they're bearish.