Buffett, Musk, Wood, Cuban Or Ackman: Who Do Investors Trust Most With Life Savings? Poll Shows It Isn't Even Close

The recent surge in retail investors has led to more people managing their own investments in stocks, ETFs, and options. But if given the choice to entrust their life savings to a well-known investor or billionaire, here’s who they would choose.

What Happened: A hypothetical question proposed by Benzinga to readers offered the chance to consider if legendary investor Warren Buffett would be best to handle their life savings or perhaps allowing the world's richest person Elon Musk to invest their money.

"Who would you trust most with investing your life savings?" Benzinga asked.

The results were:

• Warren Buffett: 58%
• Ray Dalio: 9%
• Cathie Wood: 3%
• Elon Musk: 11%
• Bill Ackman: 2%
• Mark Cuban: 11%
• Jamie Dimon: 6%

Buffett overwhelming won the Benzinga poll with 58% of the vote. This might not come as a surprise as Buffett has decades of history showing his great investment returns and beating stock market indices, as Benzinga recently shared.

Berkshire Hathaway Inc BRK BRK shares are up 123.4% over the last five years and up 227.2% over the last 10 years.

Tying for second in the poll were Cuban and Musk. Cuban is well-known for his success in the technology sector and for landing deals on "Shark Tank" that have turned into winning bets. One of Cuban's biggest wins may have been buying the Dallas Mavericks for $285 million in 2000. Cuban recently sold a majority stake in the team with a $3.5 billion valuation.

Musk is the richest person in the world, worth $239 billion according to Bloomberg estimates. Musk is affiliated with top companies like Tesla Inc, SpaceX, Neuralink, X, The Boring Company and had past stints with PayPal and OpenAI.

Tesla stock is one of the top performers of the last five and 10-year periods, up 1,374.8% and 1,163.2% respectively. Musk's other ventures like SpaceX and Neuralink have also seen their valuations rise.

The Ark Venture Fund from Cathie Wood's Ark Invest offers the closest opportunity to invest in all of Elon Musk's ventures, with Tesla being the only public company. Launched in September 2022, the fund includes stakes in SpaceX, X, Tesla, and several other private companies.

Speaking of Wood, the fund manager ranked nearly last in the poll with 3%, narrowly beating out Bill Ackman for last place.

Wood's Ark Innovation ETF ARKK was once one of the most talked about ETFs on the market, with big bets on technology companies with lofty valuations. Outsized positions in names that have fallen out of favor and watched valuations cut has hurt the fund's performance. Ark Invest is up 1.5% over the last five years and up 9.6% since fund inception in October 2014.

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Why It's Important: While it's unlikely that investors will ever have these renowned investors and billionaires managing their money directly, they can get close by investing in Tesla, Berkshire Hathaway, or Ark Innovation—aligning their portfolios with the strategies of Musk, Buffett, and Wood, respectively.

With market indices hitting all-time highs in mid-2024, Benzinga recently asked about expectations for the last four months of the year.

"What's your investment strategy for the second half of 2024?" Benzinga asked.

The results were:

• Expecting a strong bull run: buying and holding high-risk assets: 26%
• Anticipating a major pullback: holding conservative assets or staying out of the market: 18%
• Staying the course: maintaining broad market exposure and riding the wave: 56%

The poll found that most investors aren't changing their investment habits to close out the year and are keeping broad market exposure. A larger percentage of investors are buying higher risk assets than buying conservative assets.

Benzinga also asked investors about their thoughts on the cryptocurrency sector, led by Bitcoin BTC, for the next year.

"Is a post-having surge still coming for Bitcoin, or will 2024/2025 disappoint crypto investors?" Benzinga asked.

The results were:

• Bullish: still expecting the post-halving surge: 39%
• Bearish: preparing for a disappointing 2024/2025: 17%  
• Avoiding: staying out of crypto investments: 45%

The survey found that nearly half of the investors polled are not investing in cryptocurrency at the current time. A higher percentage of investors see Bitcoin as a bullish investment than a bearish investment for the next year.

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The study was conducted by Benzinga on Aug. 14 through Aug. 16, 2024, and included the responses of a diverse population of adults 18 or older. Opting into the survey was completely voluntary, with no incentives offered to potential respondents. The study reflects results from 132 adults.

Image created using artificial intelligence via Midjourney.