Advisers choosing to move away from face to face advice, and therefore not being tied to serving clients in their immediate vicinity, could help close the advice gap, it has been suggested.
Speaking on the FTAdviser Podcast, Victor Sacks, independent financial adviser at VS Associates, said geographical restrictions on where advisers can conduct business have been removed as more have been forced to provide advice remotely due to Covid-19 and the subsequent lockdown.
This in turn could see advisers being able to help a wider group of clients which could help close the widening advice gap.
Mr Sacks said: “I am in Cambridgeshire and whereas before you would limit yourself to an hour's journey and put a geographical restriction on, what Zoom etc is teaching me is that it doesn’t matter as long as you can do a good job, if not better, over the phone.”
He added: “Geographically it doesn't matter so maybe all of us can help close that gap in those clients needing and requiring financial advice.”
Joining Mr Sacks on the podcast, Neil Moles, chief executive officer at Progeny, also agreed technology would have a more permanent role in advice.
He said: “The world has to figure out what it wants post-Covid. Do we want to go back to how it was or embrace this new way of working.
“I personally believe we can communicate better than we ever have and that the world has changed for the better.”
Meanwhile, Martin Brown, managing partner at Continuum, said that while not everyone adapts, more and more clients are coming to have a “deeper appreciation” that working remotely means advisers are able to have “more quality focused time with clients”.
You can listen to the full podcast by clicking play on the video above, or by searching for the FTAdviser Podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Acast or Stitcher.
amy.austin@ft.com