The rise of DIY investing has seen clients have become confident to carry out their financial affairs on their own, but advice of an IFA is still too valuable not to have.
UK financial services firm OneFamily surveyed 216 advisers and found only a quarter (25%) of their over 55 year-old UK clients have an idea of what they want when taking advice.
However, of these people, over half of them (55%) changed their minds after speaking to an IFA.
Delivering the best outcome
Andrew Tully, technical director at Canada Life, said to International Adviser: “This is a classic case of you don’t know what you don’t know.
“The pension freedoms opened up the market for consumers but at the same time transferred all of the risks and responsibility onto the individual.
“Without the help and support of a financial adviser most people won’t see the full picture or understand the pros and cons of different approaches.
“Or understand how mixing and matching different approaches can deliver similar results over retirement with less risk.
“Clients also need to consider the order of disinvestment, as using assets other than the pension to fund retirement, such as ISA or property wealth first, can create significant IHT benefits.
“With the right financial advice, clients will be able to optimise their retirement planning strategies and deliver the best outcome.”
Confusion
The survey also found that the majority of advisers’ clients misunderstood later life products, such as annuities, pensions and equity release.
This confusion about of the financial options available in later life is coupled with a lack of understanding of their own personal situation, as advisers also said that nearly half (47%) of their clients don’t know how much they have in their pension pot.
Sarah Waring, Quilter Private Client Advisers client and proposition director, told IA: “An important part of how a financial adviser shows their value is illustrating the best financial solution for the client’s individual needs.
“However, purely picking the right solution is just one element of how an adviser helps their client.”
IA recently reported on Quilter Delta, which is the firm’s formula to “quantify the emotional and empirical value” that advisers deliver for clients, on an annualised basis.
