Adviser approval hits seven-year high

Investor satisfaction with financial advisers has hit a seven-year high, with consumers rating planners highly on trust, technical ability and performance. 

The levels of satisfaction were measured by Lifeplan Funds Management and the University of Adelaide, which has conducted a consumer satisfaction survey every six months since 2007. The survey looks at changes in investor attitudes to planners in the areas of trust and reliability, technical ability, and investment performance. 

The survey results, recorded in the Lifeplan ICFS Financial Advice Satisfaction Index, found that overall satisfaction increased to 74.5 per cent, up from 72.3 per cent in October 2013.  

Lifeplan said that all three areas - the perception of performance, trust and reliability, and technical ability - had increased since the October 2013 survey, with the perception of performance increasing by the highest rate. 

This area increased by 4.13 per cent, compared with the perception of trust and reliability which increased by 2.2 per cent and the perception of adviser technical ability which rose by 2.9 per cent. 

Lifeplan head Matt Walsh said the improvements were due to better adviser-client relationships and not market performance, which had still not reached pre-GFC levels. 

“Not enough has changed in the domestic and global landscape since the October 2013 survey to move the index this much, but the quality of advice seems to have improved when benchmarked against the capital markets,” Walsh said. 

“Despite capital markets not yet achieving pre-GFC levels, the Index and its three drivers are at record levels. This indicates that financial advisers, in an increasingly complex and dynamic capital market, are providing value-added services.” 

Walsh said the survey results reinforced the Government’s decision to pause any wind-back of the Future of Financial Advice reforms. 

“Finally after years of reforms and post-GFC recovery, we have record levels of satisfaction with financial advisers, and that should be celebrated and built upon. A wind-back could raise the ogre of commissions again, which can work against the public’s confidence in financial advisers.”