Financial planners are the most optimistic and energetic they’ve been in years, with 94.5 per cent of advisers positively upbeat about the long term viability of their businesses, according to a new report.
The latest Zurich Risk Adviser Sentiment Index, which was conducted by Beaton Research and Consulting, found risk advisers are currently the most positive they’ve been for two years with the overwhelming majority predicting higher current and immediate sales volumes, and a surge in consumer demand for life insurance advice.
The only area where advisers said they were not confident was related to regulation. Only 26.5 per cent of advisers said they were feeling positive about the current regulatory environment, while half indicated negative sentiment.
Zurich’s retail general manager Philip Kewin said the research showed advisers will enter 2014 more secure about their role as professionals and business owners.
“While the bedding down of the Future of Financial Advice reforms and other regulatory issues is still causing angst for some, there is a strong sense that the new government will bring with it a degree of stability and certainty for the industry,” he said.
“For many in the industry 2013 will be seen as a year of fatigue: FoFA fatigue, election fatigue and interest rate fatigue but this research shows advisers are feeling more positive than they have for some time.”
The survey, which was based on interviews with 200 advisers nationally, asked respondents to rate their sentiment across five key areas, using a seven-point scale ranging from extremely negative to extremely positive.
The overall sentiment score for December was calculated as 5.04 out of 7, up from 4.89 in December 2012.
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