A new index to measure client's satisfaction with adviser's performance has been launched in conjunction with the University of Adelaide's International Centre for Financial Services (ICFS).
Commissioned by Adelaide based funds manager Lifeplan, the Lifeplan ICFS Financial Advice Satisfaction Index aims to establish the relationship between various attributes of investors' satisfaction with their financial advisers.
The attributes are: trustworthiness of the planner, clients' perception of how their investments have performed and the technical abilities of the planner that most impact client advocacy.
The index is based on an academic study prepared by Doctor Akbar Z Ali and Associate Professor Chris Medlin of the ICFS.
The Lifeplan ICFS Financial Advice Satisfaction Index has a starting point of 75.
"This number is not a percentage and does not have any particular meaning in itself as it is a baseline for future reference," Lifeplan Funds Management strategic development general manager Matt Walsh said.
"Future studies will evaluate over time the movements in investor satisfaction with financial advisers."
According to Walsh the new project was not a mystery shopping exercise or general survey of what the public think of planners.
"We are getting under the skin of the actual relationships that clients and planners have and that is of immense value for the industry," Walsh said.
"The fact that clients generally hold their planners in higher regard the longer they've been with them, is a positive endorsement of the financial planning profession and the regard in which it is held by its clientele."
