Individual investors are feeling more uncertain about their finances than they have over the past several years and are relying on their financial advisors to help them make sound decisions, according to a new survey from Natixis Investment Management. Investors’ downward shift in confidence and lowered long-term return expectations were recorded even before recent tariff wars kicked off market losses and volatility.
Over the past two years, strong returns made investing look easy, according to 48% of respondents in the 2025 Natixis Survey of Individual Investors, which examined global investor sentiment. However, only 35% of respondents said this market run would continue, while 23% said they did not know what to do, and another 21% planned to get out of the market.
In fact, survey respondents revealed that their return expectations declined from 12.8% above inflation in 2023 to 10.7% today. However, even these more modest expectations are out of sync with the views held by financial advisors. In the U.S., investors’ long-term return expectations average 12.6%, while U.S.-based financial advisors put the likely figure at 7.1%, an expectation gap of 76%.
Investors’ biggest concern appears to be persistent inflation, with 50% of those surveyed globally identifying it as a top financial fear. That figure jumps to 60% for investors based in the United States. Other big worries include potential economic collapse (43%), a market crash (41%), international conflict (39%) and concerns about rising taxes (28%). Sixty-eight percent of investors globally and 66% of U.S. investors said that shifting policies are making it hard to estimate how taxes will impact their holdings.
In this more uncertain environment, 91% of survey respondents trust their financial advisors the most to help them make investment decisions. That’s a higher percentage than those who trust their own judgement the most (88%), input from family (69%), other financial advisors (68%) banks (60%), close friends (56%) and retirement plan providers (53%).
Among the attributes that investors value in a financial advisor, 63% want an understanding of their personal financial goals. Another 47% prioritize financial planning advice, 39% put a premium on an advisor helping them understand investing, and 33% want an advisor to understand their unique situation.
Of those surveyed, 37% said they rely only on a traditional financial advisor to help them make investment decisions, with another 18% accessing both traditional financial advice and an automated advice platform.
In 2025, investors voiced more demand for some services from their financial advisors. For example, given the uncertainty over tax treatment, demand for tax-efficient investments from advisors jumped from 32% of global respondents in 2023 to 36% this year. In the U.S., the change has been even more dramatic, with an increase from 32% in 2023 to 47% in 2025.
On the other hand, U.S. investors’ demand for private market investment options from their advisors remains somewhat muted compared to the rest of the world, at 16%. Globally, one-third of investors want their advisors to connect them to private asset investment opportunities. This might be because of higher net worth requirements necessary for accessing most private market assets in the U.S., according to Natixis.
CoreData Research administered the survey on behalf of Natixis between February and March 2025. It included 7,050 investors from 21 countries.
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