How many of the countries best financial advisors are telling their customers to invest in gold? Despite the fact that gold has gone up for the past eleven years, a Barron’s survey shows that gold remains distinctly out of favor by mainstream investment advisors.
Barron’s interviewed 51 of the countries most successful investment advisors from each of the fifty states plus the District of Columbia. Although investment returns were not disclosed, Barron’s selected the best investment pros based on the amount of assets managed, revenues generated, gain in the number of clients and the quality of their practices.
The 51 pros selected by Barron’s are the best in the business, work hard, serve wealthy sophisticated clients and manage hundreds of billions of dollars of wealth. According to the survey, the most common investment strategy of the top financial advisors was to generate income flows and potential capital gains by owing high quality blue chip stocks. Most of the advisors were optimistic, predicting that dividend paying stocks would outperform government securities on which yields have plunged to all time lows.
Of the 51 advisors interviewed, only two specifically recommended a small portfolio allocation into gold. The investment advisor from Iowa recommended that clients make “sure 3% to 5% of their portfolios are in gold” and the investment pro from Nebraska suggested a 10% position in gold mining stocks.
The number of investment pros recommending gold was surprising low, especially after considering the potential for another financial meltdown precipitated by sovereign debt crises, rampant money printing by central banks and towering levels of debt that threaten to crush the world economy.
Gold - courtesy kitco.com
Gold has proven to be a vehicle for wealth preservation over thousands of years and is insurance against financial disaster. Has the increase in gold since 2000 already fully discounted the worst possible economic and financial scenarios?
Barron’s smart money pros apparently think that gold’s run is over. Are gold investors nuts to argue with the world’s best money managers, especially after an almost 7 fold increase in the price of gold since 2000? What do you think?
More on this topic: Gold Bull Market Could Last Another 20 Years With $12,000 Price Target
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