The main barrier to seeking advice is confusion over what a financial adviser actually does, according to a new report.
Financial services practice development consultants, BusinessBlades, has released the results of a new study into consumer attitudes towards financial advice. The report, called ‘Connecting with Consumers’, revealed that just 2% of consumers considered going to a financial adviser for personal insurances, and 5% said they would seek help from a planner to establish financial goals.
Instead, 33% of consumers surveyed said they chose to look after their own finances, and a further 27% said they thought they did not have enough money to invest. 22% stated they would only seek financial advice following a specific event.
Neil O’Grady, Founder and Co-Director of BusinessBlades, said the results indicated that consumers have not grasped the scope of services offered by financial advisers, and do not understand the benefits of seeking advice.
“Financial planners need to look at their value propositions differently,” Mr O’Grady said. “As an industry, we have to look at how people perceive what we do. We have to do more work on the scope of services offered and the benefits people are going to get out of using them. We have been talking about value propositions for years; now is the time to take action.”
Financial planners need to look at their value propositions differently
He also pointed to the fact that many consumers were seeking one-off, event-based advice.
“It usually takes a life event, such as receiving an inheritance or redundancy payout, to prompt them into approaching a financial planner,” he said.
“Consumers want advice which is specific to an identified need, such as retirement or coming into inheritance. If you want to engage with the 80% of Australians who aren’t currently using a financial planner, talking up holistic advice is not going to win them over.”
He suggested practices should investigate developing a single-issue advice offer, perhaps based around life stages.
“The process of repositioning advice businesses doesn’t have to be painful. It may be just a slight tweaking or modification that helps provide real clarity to consumers about who the financial planner is, what a financial planner does and how they can help.”
Has the ASIC read this what % and how many seek specific advice? what’s FOFA all about then?
Is the Australian Gov serious how much money have they invested in on 1% of the population on FOFA or the Ripoll report.
These reports have been a simple abuse of power and Government tall poppy syndrome, really don’t we as a society have more pressing matters to deal with? what about terrorism are armed forces could do with funding instead of the waste of time on FOFA.
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