Survey: advisers keeping clients, but not always profitably
/A recent Investment Trend survey has found advised clients are sticking with their planners during the pandemic.
Over 700 financial planners were surveyed in May. While clients may have been sticking around, it didn’t translate into profits, unfortunately, with over 40 per cent of advisers saying their practice was less profitable compared to last year. The drop was minimal, with last year’s numbers being 38 per cent, but that is still high: in 2018, just 18 per cent of advisers said their practice was not profitable.
Key findings include:
Main challenges include meeting compliance obligations (67 per cent) and providing affordable advice (46 per cent)
Advisory firms rising to the challenge (for net profit) were better at handling compliance-related obligations using technology to increase efficiency
Tech-savvy advisory firms were much more likely to be prepared for disruptions to technology and operations due to the pandemic
More planners than ever are self-licensed, with almost a third of advisers surveyed holding their own Australian financial services licence (AFSL) or operating in a boutique AFSL, which is twice as many as in 2016
Ninety-two per cent of self-licensed advisers outsource or use third parties for compliance and audit services, research, professional development and paraplanning
