According to Roy Morgan’s Single Source survey, around 3.5 million Australians have been asked for financial advice by their friends or family.
The survey found that, of the 16 largest consumer banks, Citibank has the highest proportion of customers (34.5 per cent) that are asked by friends or family for their financial advice, followed by ME Bank with 32.2 per cent.
Bank customers who are asked for financial advice have the potential to gain or lose customers for their institution depending on how they feel regarding their satisfaction with the relationship with their current bank.
The highest proportion of the big four bank customers who are asked for advice is ANZ with 21.2 per cent, followed by the NAB (20.4 per cent), Westpac (19.5 per cent) and CBA (17.9 per cent).
“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,” said Roy Morgan industry communications director Norman Morris.
“With 3.5 million people being asked by family and friends for financial advice and 6 million asking them for advice, this network is likely to play a major role in financial decisions.”
Roy Morgan’s Single Source survey is based on in-depth interviews conducted face-to-face with over 50,000 consumers in their homes.
The latest results are based on interviews conducted in the 12 months to September 2018.
The goal of the regulators is to limit access to unbiased and independent financial advice to the HNW clients only. The rest (mums and dads who actually need it) are left to figure it out on their own and the smart and lucky ones will do a bit of research and maybe come out alright if they run it by their accountant. The rest will just do what is easiest or follow the advice of a family friend, a website, a guy at the pub or even worse a paid for advsertisement on TV, facebook or instagram
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Surely there are family and friends out there who understand the intricacies of macroeconomics and the impact this plays on markets… fair enough, why not invest in Bitcoin. A family friend re-mortgaged their house to invest in Bitcoin at it’s peak (FOMO), without even discussing with a financial adviser… need I say more as to how this went (USD$18,700 down to USD$3,600)?