CoreData names advisory group of the year

Research which canvassed the views of close to 800 people who are in the market for financial advice on their reaction to their first in person meeting with a financial planner, has revealed ipac Financial Planning is CoreData’s Advisory Group of the Year in 2013.

Fortnum Financial Advisers and Apogee Financial Planning received Highly Commended accolades, while Synchron and MLC/Garvan were Commended.

The Award is given to the licensee with the strongest ability to acquire prospective clients, based on the ratings of consumers who were in the market for financial advice. It is measured using the ACQUIRE Index©, which incorporates seven benchmark categories: Assurances, Compliance, Quality, Understanding, Intention, Reaction and Environment.

Commenting on CoreData’s Award, Tim Steele, Managing Director – ipac, said: “ipac is very proud of the efforts of our exceptional advisers and support staff who care passionately about the difference we make to the lives of our clients. It is a great honour for us to receive this award, and we see it as recognition of the work we have done to continue to evolve our advice process and invest in adviser training to improve the experience for clients seeking quality financial advice.”

In a positive sign for the industry, the critical Intention category of the ACQUIRE Index – a measure of customer commitment to proceed to a second meeting, choose and recommend a financial adviser – has improved to the highest level ever recorded (59%).

However, at an industry level the Index has fallen to its lowest level in the past five years.  This has largely been driven by a decline in aggregate scores for Compliance, which fell to its lowest level since 2008,  Understanding and Quality.

CoreData followed the entire customer experience when seeking financial advice of 786 separate mystery shopping events across 28 of the industry’s major dealer groups from November 2013 through to March 2014. Shadow shop participants were actively seeking advice or looking to switch from their current adviser and had more than $150,000 in investable assets or in their superannuation.