Self-select websites and direct investment platforms are regarded as the biggest threats to financial advisers, according to a poll carried out at the Intelliflo ‘Change the Game’ conference.
The conference, held in London on 4 June, was attended by over 200 financial advisers from across the UK and featured keynote presentations from Microsoft’s Chief Envisioning Officer, David Coplin and Intelliflo’s founder and Executive Chairman, Nick Eatock, as well as multiple special interest seminars.
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During the panel debate, hosted by the broadcaster and journalist, Gavin Hewitt, advisers were asked to vote on three questions.
The first focused on what or who they regard poses the biggest threat to their businesses. Self-select websites attracted by far the most votes (65% of the 138 advisers who voted), with direct investment platforms the second most voted for option (43%). Third in the list was ‘general image of independent financial advice’ which got 29% of the vote.
The second question focused on platform trail commission. The response (from 120 of the financial adviser delegates) showed a quarter (26%) still have 20% or more of their annual business turnover coming from platform trail commission, with one in eight of them (12%) having more than 30% of their turnover reliant on this soon-to-go revenue stream.
The third question asked if they had noticed any change in their clients’ long-term appetite for risk since 2008. The majority (44% of the 123 advisers who voted) said their clients were more cautious initially but confidence has returned although one in five (22%) said their clients remained more risk adverse. Around a third (34%) said they had generally remained the same.
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By GlobalDataNick Eatock comments, "The poll we carried out at the conference showed some interesting results. Clearly there is concern about the growth of self-select websites and platforms going direct to end customers but I hope the delegates took some comfort from the conference in knowing there are clear digital strategies they can employ that will give them the tools to compete against these threats.
