Financial advisers active in the Australian life risk market are “moderately positive” about the outlook for themselves and their practices despite a challenging year ahead.

According to a new survey commissioned by Zurich Financial Services Australia (Zurich), risk advisers are optimistic in the face of the short-term regulatory changes facing the industry.

Speaking at the launch of the Zurich-Beaton Risk Adviser Sentiment Index, Colin Morgan, chief executive officer of Zurich’s Australian Life and Investments business, said he had always admired financial advisers for their “resilience and positive outlook in what can be a very challenging profession”.

“These results show that, despite facing stagnant financial markets, low consumer sentiment and remaining uncertainty around Future of Financial Advice (FoFA), risk advisers are looking forward with optimism to the opportunities that 2012 may bring,” he added.

The survey, conducted by Beaton Research and Consulting, found that those financial advisers active in the Australian life risk market were “moderately positive” on a range of issues.

In constructing the index, Beaton surveyed over 300 advisers actively writing life risk insurance.

Respondents were asked to indicate their sentiment across five key areas, using a seven-point scale ranging from “extremely negative” to “extremely positive”.

The five areas examined were: consumer demand for advised life insurance; the adviser’s current sales volume; the regulatory environment; likely sales volume for next quarter; and the long term viability of their practice.

The overall sentiment score for December 2011 was calculated as 4.5 out of 7, which equates to a sentiment of “moderately positive”.

“Despite the overall negative sentiment in terms of the current regulatory environment, advisers are looking beyond the short term and remain positive about the long term viability of their practice,” said Dr Jelena Dodic, account director at Beaton Research and Consulting.

Deeper analysis of the results also found that those advisers active in the life risk market were marginally more optimistic than those who weren’t.

South Australian and Victorian advisers were more optimistic than their counterparts in other states.