Over 2-in-3 BullionVault users are 100% self-directed...

 

WHO do you trust most for financial advice? asks Adrian Ash at world-leading precious metals marketplace BullionVault.

 

Among people now holding gold or silver among their assets, the vast majority rely on their own thinking and judgement to make investment decisions. And virtually all of them continue to shun robo-advisors and other AI advisory tools.

 

That's the clear response from our latest survey of BullionVault users.

 

Besides finding that gold and silver investors are less bullish than you might guess for 2025 prices, it asked our global clientbase who they trust most for investment decisions.

 

Polled at the start of July, and sourcing the views of over 1,000 precious metal investors worldwide, it found that 68% believe themselves to be 100% self-directed. And it found that the only other significant proportion, some 16%, act on ideas sourced online from bloggers, finfluencers, tipsters or podcasters.

 

In contrast, only 6% of respondents said they act on the advice of a financial adviser, financial planner, or advisory stockbroker.

 

More on the AI result in a second. Because first, that finding around professional advice is starker even than recent figures from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which found that just 9% of UK adults received financial advice about their pensions or investments in the previous 12 months.

 

So while much of the conversation around accessing financial advice and guidance has focused on pensions, stocks, and bond investments, the low uptake of financial advice is lower still among people who include precious metals in their investments.

 

That's perhaps unsurprising. Investors who own gold or silver are avowedly self-directed in my experience. First, that's because physical bullion doesn't rely on anyone else's financial performance for its value, and that offers an obvious hedge to securitized assets and packaged products.

 

Second, and across my 25 years in the precious metals markets, I've known only a handful of financial advisors who would ever recommend physical bullion to their clients. That's despite gold outperforming all other asset classes so far this century hands down.

 

 

Gold investors are far from solely invested in bullion, however.

 

On average, our regular surveys find that they hold over 80% of their investable wealth in other assets, using precious metals as a form of portfolio insurance as well as a source of growth. So the advisory gap applies equally to those other assets, and it suggests a real failure to engage or instil confidence in professional advice by the formal financial industry.

 

As it is, countless sources on the internet make it easier than ever to find investing ideas and information. But as the financial crisis showed, due diligence is vital, and it starts with taking responsibility for your own money. It's a real positive that the majority of people are taking charge and owning their investment decisions. 

 

That's why execution-only services such as BullionVault are becoming increasingly popular, because they are not about promoting packaged products. Rather, these specialised platforms empower investors to act on their personal decisions directly, cutting out intermediaries and reducing costs.

 

Most notably from our survey, at least for the financial services industry, less than 1% of BullionVault's respondents said they most use and trust AI services for their investment decisions. That highlights just how far there is to go before investors hand over the reins to artificial intelligence services to support them managing their financial assets. 

 

So while many investors are happy seek ideas from online sources such as finfluencers and tipsters, trust in AI services is vanishingly small. That could signal a big problem with the finance industry's push towards robo-advice, because where investors are willing to take direction, the human element seems to be key. Sure, Gen Z might prefer to avoid phone calls let alone face-to-face meetings. But investors as a group show a clear preference for personality over AI.

 

And the personality they trust most is themselves.