43% of investors unlikely to switch for better AI tools

Forty-three percent of U.S. investors say they are unlikely to switch providers over enhanced digital and AI capabilities, up from 35% in 2025, according to a KPMG study sponsored by SIFMA. The 2026 Voice of Investor Satisfaction, Trust, and Advocacy study surveyed 2,123 U.S. individual investors with at least $100,000 in investable assets.

Trust in financial advisors as a primary source of investment advice rose to 52% across all generations, from 50% a year earlier. Investors who work with an advisor — exclusively or in a hybrid of human advice and self-directed access — continue to report the highest satisfaction and trust of any group in the study.

For RIA principals, the switching figure frames the return question: if better tools do not move accounts, AI spending needs to pay for itself in advisor capacity or retention, not client acquisition. That is an inference from the switching number, not a stated finding of the study.

Eighty-three percent of surveyed investors said the industry is meeting their needs, and 82% were satisfied with their firms' ethical standards and accountability.

The report concludes that technology has become a baseline expectation rather than a differentiating reason to move accounts.

Trust in AI as a primary source of investment advice fell among Gen Z investors to 10% in 2026, down from 20% in 2025, the study found.

The study measures stated trust and satisfaction, not account flows, and the switching figure is an intention rather than a count of accounts that actually moved.