Financial Planners and advisers have very high confidence in the service they provide their clients but are much less impressed by some issues that are not in their immediate control.

NextWealth’s latest Financial Advice Business Benchmarks report, supported by PIMFA, revealed 92% were confident in their firm’s ability to deliver good value for money.

Some 89% of respondents were confident in their ability to meet the advice needs of clients.

But only around a quarter (26%) were confident in the capability of the regulator and less than half (46%) were confident in the stability of the economy.

Heather Hopkins, NextWealth’s managing director said: “It’s interesting to see how frustrated the profession is with certain elements. One of those is innovation in technology, which can be a critical driver of business efficiency. Only 21% of respondents are fully confident in technology innovations to make their lives easier.”

The report was first launched in 2019 and the data collected to illustrate the efficiency of delivery of financial advice. NextWealth said the latest report highlighted no meaningful improvement in the time taken to deliver initial advice to new clients.

Ms Hopkins said: “In spite of new ways of working and huge advances in tech, there has been no improvement in the time it takes to deliver advice to a new client. It still takes an average of 33 days to deliver the first piece of advice. That is something I really hope we see change in the near future. While tech can make advice businesses more efficient, these firms rely on providers to share data. Tech isn’t the only solution.”

The survey revealed a greater focus on organic growth with more firms taking on new clients and hiring staff. More than two thirds of respondents said their firm (68%) was looking to grow by taking on new clients, up from 50% last year. Some 40% said they plan to grow by hiring new staff, nearly double the share compared with last year.

• The results in the report are based on a survey of 340 financial advice professionals, conducted between 12 June and 14 August.