Covid-19 has led to growing divergence in long-term return expectations between clients and financial professionals.

A survey of 8,550 individual investors (with at least $100,000 investible) by Natixis Investment Managers, found that a high proportion are optimistic given the double-digit returns earned in 2020, and so expect to achieve annual returns of 13 percent above inflation in 2021.

Over the long term, return expectations run even greater at 14.5 percent above infl...