Investors' confidence in financial advisers has remained solid despite market volatility over the last six months.
Ahead of the FPA conference in Sydney next week, the Lifeplan ICFS Financial Advice Satisfaction Index reported that investors' advocacy of their adviser had only slipped from its baseline measure of 75 to 74.3.
"The main contributor to the change to the index is the perception younger investors and those with less than $50,000 invested have of the performance of their financial planner," Lifeplan Funds Management general manager strategic development Matt Walsh said.
In the first survey, carried out six months ago, the proportion who strongly agreed to being satisfied with performance due to their adviser and who had less than $50,000 invested was 32 per cent. That fell to 19 per cent in the next survey.
For clients who had between $50,000 and $250,000 invested, the proportion who strongly agreed to being satisfied with performance due to the adviser in the original survey was 36 per cent.
For those with more than $250,000 invested, it was 49 per cent. In the latest survey figures these are 39 per cent and 50 per cent respectively.
"It is pleasing to note that older investors with more funds to invest actually registered slight increases in the ratings for their advisers in the areas of trust, performance perception and technical ability, despite the volatility in the market over the past six months," Walsh said.
Commissioned by Adelaide-based funds manager Lifeplan and developed by Adelaide University's International Centre for Financial Services, the index looks to establish the relationship among various attributes of investors' satisfaction with their advisers.
