New findings from a survey by financial services marketing agency Yell and research firm Ipsos, conducted in June during the royal commission, has revealed that consumer trust in financial advisers dipped by 6 per cent since 2017.
Likewise, trust in banks also dropped by 8 per cent.
When asked to rank financial services organisations according to trust, financial advisers fell from third place in 2017 to fifth place and banks slipped to third place from second place in 2017.
“This year’s results showed an acceleration in the gradual erosion of consumer trust that’s still not being recognised by the industry as a whole,” said Yell founding partner Nigel Roberts.
The financial services industry would need to take responsibility for the declining trust and reorient its offerings to better serve the customer, he suggested.
“The challenge for all of financial services and especially the banking sector, is to halt the slide in trust or face real consequences,” Mr Roberts said.
“This can be achieved, but will involve much greater empathy and delivering solutions that truly meet customer needs, rather than meeting sales targets.
“The shift away from pushing product requires more than just having a view on the vast quantities of data currently being collected; it needs a human-centred approach as well.”
He also posed the question of whether incumbents would see a “significant commercial impact” as new market entrants entering the industry did not “carry the stigma of some of the established players”.
“We’ve seen the big four shifting away from wealth services ahead of and during the royal commission, maybe in anticipation of any potential findings, but the question is: will it be enough to protect them from the emergence of neo-banks and other viable alternatives in Australia?” Mr Roberts asked.
No shit Sherlock. what a waste of a headline and story
Interesting the banks have made most of the mistakes yet the small advice practices are paying the price. Now the banks are selling off their advice businesses after stuffing it up. Maybe the politicians need to be forced into a degree related to their portfolio and then they make more accurate decisions on policy.
Consumer confidence is down? What ratio of those consumers surveyed have dealt with a financial adviser? Also, tell me what the confidence levels are for the consumers who HAVE (or had) a financial adviser…..so many distrust financial advisers, yet every planner I know is growing and has strong relationships with all their clients.
Shock horrow. Public trust falls. What’s next. This is my FASEA practive exam.
a) PI Cover and dealer fees up.
b) Extra regulation
c) Pre FoFA investment commissions banned-
d) Grandfathered commission to AFSL cancelled & dealer group fees up.
e) non aligned advice firms going broke due to extra red tape and all of the above.
f) ALL of the above.
what a load of crap, its mainly because of media love selling stories. i’m sure the same would happen if the media focused only on doctors not doing the right thing same same but different I think its all still BS our practice has lost one client since the RC and we are still getting word of month business. Customers see through the noise of the media. I had someone not a client talk about the ABC story and how rubbish it was and said have a go and he isn’t a client. just another day keep moving planners.
#”compare the pair” but we don’t compare anything but our own lemons insert picture of people holding ball and chain in their hands.