Financial adviser surveys

Advisers’ clients are on balance much more optimistic than they were back in November 2023 when bearish sentiment dominated. 41% are now bullish (17% in November 2023) and only 10% are bearish (61% in November 2023). This is the strongest positive sentiment since May 2021, when market optimism surged as economies started to recover from the initial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

On balance, advisers’ clients remain most concerned about the prospect of losing capital. 47% rank this as their number one concern. However, the percentage of clients rating this as their number one concern has fallen from a peak of 63% in November 2022. This may be explained by the downward trend in market volatility, and recent improvements in sentiment on expectations of a soft landing.

The proportion of advisers who think that the development of AI technology applications such as ChatGPT represents an opportunity rather than a threat to their business has risen to 76%, up from 57% one year ago. 85% of advisers anticipate incorporating AI based technology applications in their advice process in some way in the future.

The Consumer Duty came into effect in July 2023 and 39% of advisers now think that the Duty will have a high or reasonably high impact on their business, compared to 25% a year ago. 33% of advisers think that the Consumer Duty will lead to them increasing outsourcing of all or some of their investment proposition.

Unsurprisingly, the percentage of advisers who expect considerable disruption due to geopolitics over the next five years has risen to 73%. While 57% expect higher disruption related to technological advances.

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