What does the man or woman in the street want from their financial adviser? Seems a simple enough question but apparently it’s not.
In the run up to the RDR, we asked a representative sample of UK adults (1,045) what, beyond the practical side of arranging a pension or sorting an ISA, they were looking to get from seeking professional financial advice.
Anecdotal evidence from advisers already pointed to a set of primary desired outcomes so we replayed those to the sample group and asked them to tick all of the ones they felt applied to them.
They were peace of mind by clients that their finances were in order, help with preparation for retirement, having the burden of their finances taken off their hands, having peace of mind for their children and grandchildren and to free up time. Other was also an option.
And while the bulk of respondents (48 per cent) said they were looking for peace of mind, there was still more than a third (37 per cent) of respondents for whom none of the anecdotal evidence-inspired answers applied and for whom the job to be done was an unspecified ‘other’.
We put the same question to 202 financial advisers to establish what they believed their clients wanted from them beyond the practical side of things. As it turned out advisers felt their clients overwhelmingly looked to them to provide peace of mind. In stark contrast to the responses from end investors, only 8 per cent of the financial advisers polled felt that their clients came to see them for an entirely different reason to any of the ones on our list – compared to 37 per cent of UK adults who ticked ‘other’.
This exposed a potential disconnect between what people want from their financial adviser and what advisers believe clients and prospects want. It has raised some questions in terms of what those ‘other’ jobs are and whether peace of mind is conferred through qualifications, knowing the adviser well, the adviser being independent or through a quality mark.
If the latter, then is the answer for the profession to get behind marketing a financial advice ‘kite mark’ such as the ISO 22222? In a recent post on the Wizard Learning site by Michelle Hoskin of The Adviser Partnership and Standards International, findings from a survey of UK adults showed that 75 per cent would have more confidence in a financial adviser and their practice if the financial adviser had achieved a ‘quality mark’ such as the International Organisation for Standardisation.
In the same post, Michelle wrote clients were confused about where to turn to for the right financial advice because of the vast numbers of financial planners out there.
She said: “ISO 22222 plays a major role in addressing this by providing an internationally agreed benchmark which not only enables consumers to identify financial planners who possess the right knowledge, skills, ethics and experience to deliver their desired level of service but also enhances the transparency and efficiency of the process for personal financial planning.”
Clearly the question of what job people are looking for a financial adviser to do for them is a big one. We’ve opened the debate and, in the coming months, we’d welcome input from interested parties to consider this more closely.
Verona Smith is marketing director at Cofunds
