Data from the Quality of Advice Review’s adviser survey, used to refine the review, has revealed a snapshot of the adviser landscape.
The survey was conducted of over 3,300 financial advisers by ORIMA Research and distributed by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).
The majority of respondents were an authorised representative of a licensee, 19% were self-licensed and 16% were an employee of a licensee.
Some 39% of respondents had 20 years or more experience, 37% had between 10-19 years and the remainder had less than 10.
However, in line with the ongoing adviser exodus, 18% said they planned to leave the advice profession in the next five years. Just over half (56%) said they intended to remain over the same period.
Business criteria
Looking at their business, almost half (47%) had up to five other advisers in their practice, 29% were the sole adviser and 13% had between six to 20 advisers. Over three-quarters said they had 50 or more clients but 69% said they had needed to decline taking on any new clients in the past 12 months.
The most-common types of advice provided was retirement or pre-retirement (88% of advisers), life insurance (77%) and asset management/investments (76%). A third provided advice on aged care and 59% provided advice on estate planning.
Half of advisers questioned said they provided comprehensive and limited/scaled advice and a third provided comprehensive only.
Statements of Advice
The most-common forms of Statements of Advice (SOA) were provided by advisers on PDFs or on paper only while 22% gave it in a presentation. Just 3% used it in a video format.
The typical length of an SOA provided to clients was 41-80 pages but this differed significantly from the desired length which dropped down to 11-20 pages. Less than 3% desired an SOA of more than 40 pages.
Currently, just 5% said they were able to provide an SOA of 11-20 pages to their clients.
Advisers felt SOAs should be decreased as “clients do not value them”, they “do not add value” and “too costly and time-consuming to prepare”.
Disclosure documents were also cited as the main area where advisers felt regulatory burden could be decreased.
Digital advice
Only 13% of advisers said they currently used digital advice to a ‘large or very large extent’ while 24% used it ‘somewhat’ and 63% used it ‘very little or not at all’.
As to whether they would use it in the future, the volume who said they would use it to a ‘large or very large extent’ rose from 13% to 30% over the next five years.
The volume who said they would use it ‘very little or not at all’ dropped from 63% to 42%.
Main reasons cited for being averse to using automated advice technology in the next five years included “clients do not want it”, “clients lack financial literacy to navigate it” and “do not understand it enough to use it confidently”.
