Nominee for most misleading headline in 2009

From Bank Investment Consultant:

Clients Prefer Proactive Advice to Beating the Market

We'd love to believe that's true, because that would take all the pressure off in delivering satisfactory investment services, wouldn't it? But a scan of the article suggests that the clients said something very different, they were not presented the choice the headline implies.

A survey sponsored by MetLife, one that looks like it might have been skewed to favor large insurance companies, revealed that 45% would choose a financial advisor who would provide products that protect them against market risks. Only 18% said that they wanted an advisor who could "recommend products that can generate greater returns, despite greater risk."

I'm pretty confident that if the survey simply asked, "Would you like to beat the market with your portfolio returns?" they'd get a 100% affirmative.

Just to calibrate the demographics of the respondents, 29% said that if they received a windfall of $50,000 the first thing that they'd do is pay down credit card debt (the number one answer). Only 5% said that their first move would be to buy a investment product.