Pandemic online trends: finances in the spotlight

New research into online search and engagement trends by Allan Gray show Australians searches for ‘financial advice’ increased by 18 per cent in 2020, with almost 15,000 average monthly searches. This is up from 12,000 average monthly searches in 2019.

Unsurprisingly, Google Trends reported a 5,000 per cent increase in searches for the Australian Tax Office. Other areas of increased search activity were ethics, Australian Super, conflict of interest, strategy, broker, retirement and certified public accountant.

Unlicensed financial advice was mentioned 12,700 times on Twitter in 2020, largely driven by real estate agents encouraging renters to withdraw superannuation to pay rent and Liberal member Tim Wilson suggesting people use superannuation funds to buy property.

Financial advice got some good airtime in 2020, up around 61 per cent from 2019 with 17,500 mentions in trade and news publications.

The articles Australians engaged with the most (seven out of 10 articles engaged with) included superannuation topics like the impact of early release of super and unlicensed advice from real estate agents. The second most popular articles were those reporting potential or confirmed breaches relating to financial advice, for example, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) warning real estate bodies and the actions against Commonwealth Bank for conflicts in remuneration. Stories about misconduct accounted for nine out of the 20 articles with the most engagement.

The research shows a significant increase in interest in financial advice in 2020 versus 2019, with motivations centred around increased interest in superannuation, scams and industry misconduct.