Three quarter (76 per cent) of IFAs plan to retire in the next decade, according to research by Opinium.
The research, which surveyed 218 financial advisers between March 1 and 6, revealed that 31 per cent of IFAs expect to retire in the next two to five years and 30 per cent are planning to retire in the next five to 10 years.
Despite this, three in five (58 per cent) IFAs have not yet made clients aware of their plans to retire in the next decade.
Alexa Nightingale, head of financial services research at Opinium, said: “Given the number of IFAs planning to retire in the next decade and the lack of IFAs joining the industry, there is no doubt that there is a growing concern on the future of the financial advice industry.”
When looking at what IFAs plan to do upon retirement, two fifths (40 per cent) plan to sell their stake in the company, whereas 16 per cent plan to merge their business with another similar firm.
However, three quarters (76 per cent) believe there are not enough advisers entering the industry to cope with future demand.
The survey also revealed that three fifths of IFAs (60 per cent) believe there are not enough IFAs joining the industry to manage workloads and over a quarter (27 per cent) feel that there is a lack of IFAs that are specialists in needed fields.
When asked about what the consequences of a lack of sufficient IFAs would be, seven in 10 (70 per cent) think fewer consumers will be able to access financial advice.
Nightingale said: “In order to ensure that financial advice does not become less accessible, it is important that incentives are put in place to attract the younger generation to join the financial advice industry.”
Meanwhile, the survey found that nearly half of IFAs (46 per cent) think consumers will suffer financially and 36 per cent think certain fields of advice will have less resources.
As a result of insufficient IFAs to handle workload, over a quarter (26 per cent) think that more IFAs will leave the industry, 20 per cent think that the quality of advice from IFAs will decline and 18 per cent think robo-advice will become more popular.
According to IFAs, the best incentives for attracting more young people to the financial advice profession include better marketing (47 per cent), better training and development (44 per cent), financial incentives to join the industry (19 per cent) as well as throughout a career (19 per cent).
sonia.rach@ft.com
