Financial advisers should be looking to exploit the stat that around six million Australians seek advice about money and investments from friends and families, according to a survey.
Research firm Roy Morgan released its Single Source survey, which conducted face-to-face interviews with over 50,000 Australian consumers over 12 months.
The survey also found that around three and a half million Australians have been asked for financial advice by their friends or family.
Norman Morris, industry communications director at Roy Morgan, said: “This research shows that financial decisions for many have the potential to be impacted to a considerable extent by informal advice from friends and family, rather than relying on professional financial planners.
“With three and a half million people being asked by family and friends for financial advice and six million asking them for advice, this network is likely to play a major role in financial decisions.”
Banks
Of the sixteen largest consumer banks in Australia, Citibank had the highest proportion of customers (34.5%) that are asked by friends or family for their financial advice, followed by ME Bank with 32.2%.
ANZ (21.2%) was number one among the big four banks, with NAB (20.4%) in second, and Westpac (19.5%) and CBA (17.9%) in third and fourth, respectively.
Morris added: “The banks dealt with by the people who give advice have the potential to gain customers provided they have high satisfaction and as a result are more likely to be advocates for their bank.
“It is therefore worth banks understanding and tracking that important group of their customers, the ‘trusted advisers’.”
Trusted advisers
More than one in three (35.9%) of the wealthiest customers (based on the total value of their banking and finance products) were asked for advice as a ‘trusted adviser’.
Other significant groups who were asked for advice include people with personal incomes of A$120,000 (£68,000, $86,300, €75,300) per year or over (32.3%); professionals/managers/small business owners (29.6%); and those with a degree (23.4%).
Morris said: “The data used here also shows that not only are these trusted financial advisers a generally wealthier and experienced group, but they have many other differences to the general population, covering media, technology, activities and attitudes.
“The full database enables a truly holistic and unique understanding of all aspects of consumer financial behaviour, including a detailed profile of trusted financial advisers.”
