Can you deliver investors' return expectations?

Canadian investors have average return expectations of 8.6% over five years, reveals a Schroders investor study. (As a Canadian advisor, you can count yourself lucky, because that’s lower than the global average of 10.2%.)

Specifically, 46% of Canadian investors expect returns of 5% to 9%. Another 22% of investors are especially optimistic: a mere 10% to 19% in returns would suit them just fine.

(Annual global average stock market returns in the last 30 years have been 7.2%, using Thomson Reuters Datastream MSCI data.)

Read: How to project fixed income returns

But achieving massive returns might be particularly challenging, given 54% of Canadian investors say they don’t want to take on much risk.

Read: Two top Canadian stocks

Further, investors say their emotions tend to influence financial decisions, giving that sentiment a rating of 6.6 out of 10.

Read: Save clients from emotional mistakes

Encouragingly, Canadians’ number-one priority for their disposable incomes next year is to invest (39%), reveals the study. Of those Canadians, 19% expect to invest in securities, 10% in pensions and 10% in property.

Another 20% of Canadian investors say they’ll leave their cash in the bank or at home, and 18% say they’ll pay off debt.

Read: Buy assets or pay off debt? One makes clients happier

Only 12% are planning luxury purchases.

Canadians also want to learn, with 85% of respondents saying they feel the need to improve their understanding of investments.