Nearly half of advisers surveyed in November were most concerned about the outlook for equities, commodities and property over the next 12 months.
However, more than half were just as concerned regarding the prospects for defensive assets such as bonds.
Royal London surveyed 61 advisers last month asking them about their biggest concerns and thoughts on the wider industry.
Phil Reid, head of wholesale at RLAM, said: “With global stock markets touching all-time highs and bond yields still fairly low, many of our recent discussions with advisers have centred around how best to mitigate risk to client portfolios.
“Despite the current shift towards tighter monetary policy, we still think that there are many attractive opportunities available in fixed income, particularly in higher yielding, short duration assets.”
The vast majority of advisers said their clients were focused on investing for growth. Of those advisers around 72% of their clients were aiming for growth investments.
Multi-asset funds
Most advisers used multi-asset or model portfolios to invest clients’ money, with asset allocation and managing downside risk the key areas where they expected managers in these areas to add the most value.
A third said risk management capability was the most important factor they considered when choosing a multi-asset or model portfolio manager, with past performance, cost efficiency and transparency following closely.
Reid added: “The results here are encouraging, with the risk management capabilities of multi asset teams seen by advisers as vital to deciding where to invest their client’s money.
“Our research shows that both traditional multi asset funds and model portfolios still have a role to play in financial planning, most advisers tend to use both, depending on what’s most appropriate for each client.”
