COVID-19 sees advisers working harder for little gain
Financial advisers are working harder and finding it more difficult to recruit new clients because of the COVID-19 pandemic with no discernible increase in their incomes, according to a new survey.
The survey, conducted by Marketing Pulse, has found that these circumstances have forced many advisers to look even closer at their future in the industry.
The analysis, developed as part of a larger study amongst 235 financial advisers across Australia in late August, revealed that 67% of advisers said their workload had increased but not their incomes and that 60% of those adviser respondents reported that it was getting harder to bring new clients aboard.
Commenting on the findings, Marketing Pulse director, Haissam Aoun, said they confirmed the anecdotal feedback being received by his company.
“Financial advisers in Australia are finding these times particularly challenging with 35% of advisers saying that they are re-considering their futures in the industry,” he said. “It must be also a distressing for a significant proportion of advisers with 26% saying that they are currently losing clients.”
“However, the news is not uniformly pessimistic, with 30% of advisers somehow taking advantage of the situation and reporting that their businesses have improved during Covid-19,” Aoun said.
He said the results contrasted starkly with an identical study conducted by Marketing Pulse in the UK in August, where only 39% of UK advisers said their workload had increased (but not their income) and only 17% of UK advisers were reconsidering their futures in the business.
“This perhaps reflects the impact of Australia’s more severe restrictions on the Australian financial planning industry compared to the UK,” Aoun said.
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