Consumers only want to pay $800 for advice
Australians are prepared to commit to paying an average of $800 for financial advice, according to the latest research from Investment Trends.
The finding, within the Investment Trends 2023 Financial Advice Report, has underlined the degree to which consumers are being deterred from accessing financial advice based on cost.
According to Investment Trends, 1.3 million people with advice needs plan to seek an adviser over the next two years and close to four million Australians are open to low-cost digital advice if the right conditions are met.
According to the research analysis, the barriers to people seeking advice are proving difficult to abate with most people citing the high or unclear cost of advice as barriers to entry.
“In contrast, the value of advice is well perceived with more than 80% of unadvised Australians seeing benefits in receiving financial advice. Australians who engage with an adviser state they feel significantly more confident in their overall financial wellbeing (61% agree) – demonstrating the meaningful impact advice can deliver to people who are able to access,” Investment Trends Head of Research, Dr Irene Guiamatsia said.
The analysis said that when analysing the profile of potential adviser clients – the 1.3 million with unmet advice needs who plan to seek an adviser in the next two years – is very similar to that of the 9.1 million with needs who don’t plan to seek the help of a professional adviser.
When asking unadvised individuals how much they would pay to receive help with each one of their unmet advice needs, on an average basis, the purchase of an investment property is the single topic people are willing to pay the most to receive assistance ($800). Noting that potential adviser clients would pay a lot more for help to start a retirement income stream ($800, compared to $580 for all unadvised with needs).
“These findings further highlight the necessity to address the cost barrier, three in four unadvised with needs state tax-deductible advice fees would be a likely incentive to seek advice – increasing to 85% among potential adviser clients,” Guiamatsia said.
Looking to the remaining 9.1m Australians who have unmet advice needs but don’t intend to seek advice in the near future, 38% of those would turn to digital advice tools when seeking advice – equating to another 3.3 million Australians that could see some of their advice gaps fulfilled, if the right digital solution came along.
In terms of specific features in a digital advice offering, the most common types of tools already used by unadvised adults are budget planners (54%), retirement needs projectors (46%) and super contributions calculators (46%) – where all three also received the highest in demand.
“Appetite for digital advice naturally increases as the amount they are willing to pay reduces. We estimate 750,000 potential adviser clients (58%) would use digital tools at a calibrated cost of $320,” concluded Guiamatsia.
These numbers aren’t surprising. They roughly align with the cost of a consultation with a specialist doctor or lawyer. Unfortunately our stupid politicians and government bureaucrats have ruined financial advice in this country. For those unwilling to pay 5 times those costs, they will have to settle for a product flog from a sales person. Apparently this is the best solution the morons in Canberra can come up with.
Very true. The doctor gives you 15 minutes of their time and gives you a verbal report on their findings and sends you on your way.
Whereas, what does an adviser have to do in the same situation? The Fact Find, the investigation, the ‘…any other matter which may be relevant..’, the writing of an SoA, the presentation of the SoA….and all for $800? Tell em they’re dreaming.
Yep and if Canberra ever reduced the BS Red Tape costs by 75% of the useless Canberra rubbish, then Real Advice could be delivered for $800 to many more Australians, by REAL ADVISERS.
It’s not that hard Canberra.
But corrupt Pollies and Regulatory Capture Corrupted Regulators will only ever serve the Banks, Life Co’s and Industry Super into ways to FLOG PRODUCT.
Unfortunately Corrupted Canberra has NO interest in Real Advice as that doesn’t sell enough Products.
$800 for each unmet advice need you say…
So:
Invoice of $4800 happily paid?
Lucky Stephen Jones has fixed the “hot mess” and reduced the cost of providing advice then!
Mr Jones has fixed the advice industry by, increasing the ASIC Levy, introducing a new levy (CSLR), introduced pedantic breach reporting for minor offences, and not one concession to the red-tape compliance knot. Advisers fees have come down precisely $0.
The answer is to vote them out, but the problem is Peter Dutton just elected a pest control business owner with a diploma from Tafe as the new shadow financial services minister. Apparently to work in the financial services industry you should be degree qualified with suitable experience and ongoing education, but to govern the financial services industry you can be whatever you want, with little understanding of anything and no experience.
And yet they don’t blink an eyelid to fork out $20k in commission to an unregulated real estate agent or buyers agent to sell / buy a property.