Advisors Split on Risk as Inflation Fears Shape 2026 Plans
Macroeconomic uncertainty is contributing to a mixed investment sentiment, according to a WealthManagement.com survey.
Respondents identified inflation and interest rate changes (57%) as the most influential trend that will shape portfolio strategies in 2026. That was followed by tech disruption (48%) and geopolitical tensions and trade policies (41%).
As a result, there’s no clear consensus on risk tolerance for 2026. Respondents were roughly evenly divided on whether this would lead to “risk-on” (38%) or “risk-off (31%) strategies. A further 31% had a neutral view on that question.
The most common investment allocations in surveyed advisors’ client portfolios are passively-managed broad market indexes (71%). (A further 5% said they planned to add those in 2026.) That is closely followed by cash or cash equivalents (69%) as well as investment-grade corporate bonds (58%).
The survey also found that 39% of respondents include private assets in client portfolios, with an additional 9% saying they planned to add those in 2026. In all, respondents expect a mean of 9% of typical client portfolios invested in alternatives next year. In addition, 45% of respondents said they expect to increase alternative exposure next year, with expected increases evenly split between less than 5% (23%) and more than 5% (22%).
Other expected adjustments include increasing exposure to crypto and digital assets (43%), although an additional 11% of advisors said they planned to decrease exposure to that asset class. Remaining respondents said allocations remained unchanged.
Additionally, 39% said they plan to increase private market allocations (with 7% saying they planned to scale back). That was followed by commodities and precious metals (26% plan to increase), investment-grade corporate bonds (25%), real estate (24%) and high-growth tech stocks (22%). In terms of declining allocations, 20% said they planned to reduce exposure to cash, followed by 13% to high-growth tech stocks and 12% to Treasuries.
In recent years, some advisors have also talked of reducing the number of asset managers they work with, but the survey found only 5% of respondents (across all asset types) plan to reduce the number of relationships in 2026. Most plan to maintain their current level, with about one-fifth saying they plan to use more managers.
In terms of their own investment processes, 74% said they planned to incorporate AI in 2026, most commonly improving workflow efficiency (47%), followed by investment research (38%), client communications (37%) and portfolio analysis (32%).
Click through the following slideshow to dig deeper into the survey findings.
Methodology: Beginning on Nov. 21, 2025, WealthManagement.com emailed invitations to participate in an online survey to active users. By Dec. 12, 2025, WealthManagement.com received 311 responses.
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