While investors have improved their confidence in the securities industry since last year, they still have not completely embraced the idea that everything is back to normal, an annual
In a positive shift from last years and 2002s survey, in which only 55% of investors said their view of the industry was either "somewhat favorable" or "very favorable," 64% held such an opinion about the industry in 2004.
However, 69% felt that industry professionals and companies are motivated by greed. By contrast, back in 1999, less than half the respondents thought greed was a motivating factor. SIAs outgoing chairman,
Further illustrating that point was the fact that 64% thought financial advisers and companies placed investor priorities second to their own. In 1999, only 37% held such a view. He noted that Eliot Spitzers probes as a main contributing factor in the soured investor confidence.
The survey, conducted from August to September of this year, polled 1,500 investors by telephone and, according to the SIA, operates under a two-point margin of error.
