Many an experiment in financial services and elsewhere has proven that cost is not actually the issue. Low-charging stakeholder pensions did nothing to increase savings to retirement. They had, in fact, the opposite effect, as companies and advisers had little incentive to market and sell them. Most of the cheapo-online-DIY investment platforms are losing money and both the banks and big insurance companies no longer advise as the profits aren’t there anymore. It’s having and realising they have a need which will make the unadvised seek advice. And when they do, they’re happy, in my experience, to pay for a good service.
“Financial advice provides £47,000 wealth uplift in a decade”
After a meeting of financial advisers this week, a younger member of my team asked me if I thought there were actually too many financial advisers. ‘How can there be?’, was my first reaction, ’there were over 100,000 of us in the ‘90s, now there are only around 25,000.
