Consumers who access financial advice have greater peace of mind and better financial behaviours, according to new research released by the AFA, which also found these attitudes were only gained through first-hand experience with an adviser.
The whitepaper – Great Advice for More Australians – was released at the AFA’s National Adviser Conference and was produced by CoreData based on a survey of 946 people between mid-August and early October this year.
AFA Chief Executive, Phil Kewin said the paper makes evident that consumers with financial advice made better decisions and better outcomes and a key finding from the paper was that people who receive advice typically pay less tax, have little, or no, bad debt and have their money working harder for them.
Kewin also said that consumers with advice reported they felt better about their financial situation, adding “79.4 per cent [of people responding to the survey] either agree or strongly agree that they feel more peace of mind since receiving advice”.
“One of the most important findings suggested by the white paper is that people who receive financial advice believe they are more in control of their finances than those who do not,” Kewin said.
“Of those surveyed, more than half, 50.2 per cent, of those who receive advice believe they could survive financially for more than six months if they were unable to work, whereas only around a quarter, 26.2 per cent, of those who do not said the same thing,” he added.
Kewin said despite the positive news for advice in the report, the financial advice sector still had to overcome the barrier of cost of advice and the erosion of trust in advisers which were very real barriers for some people.
“That said, it is encouraging that the White Paper reveals 72 per cent of people who have never received financial advice would consider it. As a profession, we need to think about how we can work to overcome these twin challenges and deliver financial advice to a community that clearly has an appetite for it,” he said.
