Money
Issue No. 42 - August/September 2008
Lifeplan FP advisors survey
Financial planners are feeling the heat as investors watch their share market nest eggs plummet in value – but that heat is surprisingly mild.
The latest Lifeplan ICFS Financial Advice Satisfaction Index shows the overall measure has fallen slightly from 74.3 to 73.2 during the past six months.
And given the world sharemarket bloodbath, Lifeplan’s Matt Walsh is surprised the result is so good. The result shows the financial planning industry has been successful in educating clients about market performance, at the cost of reducing awareness of what a financial planner can achieve.
“It’s not a big decrease and there are several positive aspects in the underlying measures,” says Matt, who is GM of Strategy and Development at Lifeplan.
The research, by the University of Adelaide’s International Centre for Financial Services, shows the three attributes that most impact a person’s advocacy of their financial planner are trustworthiness of the planner, clients’ perception of how their investments have performed, and the technical abilities of the planner.
Investors’ perception of their planners’ technical ability fell, but their satisfaction with the other two attributes showed an increase. Women were happier with the service than men.
Technical ability perception fell across all age groups. The oldest age group (over 60) was most negative across all three areas and their dissatisfaction took the overall result into negat...
