Advisers are turning their attention to customers who hold legacy products ahead of the extension of consumer duty rules in five months.
The Financial Conduct Authority regulations will be applied to closed products from July 31 this year.
Research from Abrdn found almost a third of advisers have plans to speak directly with the providers of closed products about what they think should be done to address foreseeable harm - one of the consumer duty objectives.
Overall, almost 90 per cent of advisers surveyed said they had clients that held legacy products, but just 13 per cent were satisfied with the outcomes from providers of closed book products their clients were using.
Alastair Black, head of savings policy at Abrdn, said: "Providers of closed products and services are now less than six months away from their deadline to implement consumer duty.
"However, it’s clear from this research that advisers, having had to implement and embed consumer duty for their own services, are not waiting until then to speak up where they see a need for changes to be made.
"This itself shows a relentless focus on the ‘good outcomes’ that are firmly in the spirit of the regulation."
The research, which surveyed 300 UK financial advisers this year, also found 26 per cent plan to report to the FCA what they see as areas for providers to address.
Black added: “The majority of legacy product providers are likely to welcome this feedback from advisers in helping them focus on what matters most as they work to ensure their compliance ahead of July 31.
"Many will have already been making good progress in their preparations, and – together with feedback from the rest of the industry – we’ll hopefully continue to see even more positive change in the weeks and months to come."
Earlier this month, Sheldon Mills, the FCA's executive director of consumers and competition, stressed the importance of closed product providers focussing on consumer duty implementation.
Mills said: "We know many firms have applied their laser focus on open book products ahead of the consumer duty coming into force.
"But the clock is also ticking for closed products which will come under the scope of the consumer duty at the end of July."
tara.o'connor@ft.com
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