New research by the global Financial Planning Standards Board reveals that 78 per cent of Financial Planning firms expect more people to seek Financial Planning advice in 2014 and nearly 90 per cent expect more clients in the next five years.
The worldwide research, conducted on behalf of FPSB by Comparator, an Australian benchmarking organisation, surveyed 92 financial services firms in 12 territories, representing 120,117 financial advisers and 11,568 CFP professionals. FPSB is owner of the international Certified Financial Planner Certification and FPSB UK, part of the the IFP, is the UK provider of CFP Certification. There are now over 1,000 CFP Professionals in the UK.
Firms reported that they continue to deliver initial and ongoing advice to the majority of clients predominantly through face-to-face meetings, at 88 percent and 71 percent respectively.
The top five things survey respondents felt financial services firms should do to improve the public's trust in the sector were: increasing the level of client communication; improving disclosure and transparency; managing conflicts of interest and increasing the number of credentialed advisers/planners.
The research also looked at what clients of financial services firms value most from their Financial Planners. Clients said they most valued that planners: act in the client's interest; keep clients on track with their financial and life goals; create/preserve wealth; provide a comprehensive picture of the client's finances; create a sense of financial wellbeing; and possess product/technical knowledge and competencies.
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"Placing the client's interest first" ranks as the most important thing firms can do to improve the public's trust, in line with their view that "acting in the client's best interest" is the thing clients value most from Financial Planners, according to the rresearch.
The type of Financial Planning provided by firms was evenly split between modular (specific advice on financial events on a stage by stage basis) and comprehensive, with 55 percent of clients receiving modular advice and 45 per cent of clients receiving comprehensive Financial Planning.
Noel Maye, FPSB chief executive, said: "More than three quarters of firms responded that employing Certified Financial Planner professionals led to increased client retention and nearly 85 percent responded that employing CFP professionals has a positive impact on client satisfaction with the firm."
"FPSB is pleased to see such strong alignment between what firms globally see is needed to improve the public's trust and the rigour of the CFP certification standards and CFP professionals' commitment to put the client's interests first."
In addition to results that demonstrate the value CFP professionals bring to financial services firms in terms of profitability, productivity, risk management and client satisfaction, the report presented data on firm leaders' perspectives on what clients value, and have the right to expect, when it comes to Financial Planning.
The survey was conducted from September to December 2013 in 12 territories including: Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, India, Ireland, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa and the United States. Responding firms represented the Financial Planning, banking, insurance, brokerage and employee benefit sectors and a broad range of client wealth (from clients with under US$100,000 - £62,500 - to more than US$5 million - £3.1m - in investible assets).
At the end of 2013, there were 153,376 CFP professionals worldwide.