Beancounters nudged out by planners in popularity stakes
Financial Planners are increasing their lead over accountants in the bid to win the hearts and minds of the investing public, according to a new report.
Financial Planners are increasing their lead over accountants in the bid to win the hearts and minds of the investing public, according to a new report.
An AC Nielsen survey, commissioned by the Financial Planning Associa-tion, has found that more than 30 per cent of Australians would turn to financial planners as their first port of call when seeking per-sonal financial guidance.
The latest survey shows a 2 per cent increase for financial planners from the last survey six months ago, when 28 per cent of those sur-veyed nominated financial planners as their premiere financial guid-ance contact.
It also shows a 3 per cent increase on the original survey in June 1997, when financial planners polled 27 per cent, accountants 28 per cent and bank managers 28 per cent. In the latest survey, accountants made up 24.5 per cent of the vote while bank managers brought up the rear with 22 per cent.
Recognition of financial planners as sources of advice also rose dra-matically in the last six months, rising from 17 per cent of those surveyed to 23 per cent.
FPA chief executive Michael McKenna welcomed the results of the sur-vey.
"More and more Australians are recognising that financial planners can provide advice on a wide range of personal financial matters in-cluding investing, superannuation, budgeting, savings, retirement planning and tax," he says.
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