Three quarters of IFAs plan to retire in the next decade - 31% in the next two to five years - raising concerns there could be insufficient adviser numbers in the future.

Research from Opinium found that three in five IFAs who plan to retire are yet to tell their clients.

Three quarters of advisers who responded believed there were not enough IFAs entering the industry to cope with future demand.

Three fifths believed there were not enough IFAs joining the industry to manage workloads while more than a quarter felt that there was a lack of IFAs who are specialists in needed fields.

When asked about the consequences of a lack of sufficient IFAs, seven in ten thought fewer consumers would be able to access financial advice and nearly half thought consumers would suffer financially. Just over a third thought certain fields of advice would have less resource.

Of greater concern was that as a result of insufficient IFA numbers to handle the workload, more than a quarter thought that more IFAs would leave the industry. A fifth thought that the quality of advice from IFAs would decline and just under a fifth thought robo-advice would become more popular.

One in seven IFAs not planning to retire in the next 10 years said they were concerned about the number planning to retire. 

When looking at what IFAs plan to do on retirement, two-fifths said they plan to sell their stake in the company, while some 16% plan to merge their businesses with another similar firm.

According to IFAs, the best incentives for attracting more young people to the financial advice profession include better marketing (47%), better training and development (44%), and financial incentives to join the industry (19%).

Alexa Nightingale, head of financial services research at Opinium said: “Given the number of IFAs planning to retire in the next decade and the lack of IFAs joining the industry, there is no doubt that there is a growing concern about the future of the financial advice industry.

“In order to ensure that financial advice does not become less accessible, it is important that incentives are put in place to attract the younger generation to join the financial advice industry.”

• Research was carried out using Opinium’s IFA omnibus, an online survey of 218 financial advisers, between 1 March and 6 March.