Financial advisers spend more time on administration and compliance than they do talking to clients face-to-face, research conducted by Perpetual has found.
Perpetual’s research covered 200 financial advisers and assessed how advisers use their time. The results suggested:
• Advisers spend more than 30 hours per week on client business, yet only 9 hours a week face-to-face with clients.
• More than 60% of advisers want to spend more face time with their clients.
• Paradoxically, client-related admin and compliance commitments restricted their ability to actually catch up with clients.
Perpetual’s Senior Manager Client Insights and Analytics, Gary Lembit, said: “Advisers know the value of face time with clients, yet feel their ability to meet face to face is compromised by the administrative and compliance effort required to manage their client’s affairs.”
According to Perpetual, resolving this contradiction is crucial – largely because clients really value adviser interaction.
Confidence is key
“Clients are now more driven to understand the thinking behind investment and strategic decisions,” Mr Lembit said.
• More than 50% of clients said meeting with their adviser gave them more confidence.
• 80% of advisers believe time spent face-to-face gives clients more confidence in the advice they provided.
“This suggests the need for face time between advisers and clients will remain as strong in the future as it is today.
“We need to work with advisers, clients and the industry to ensure admin and regulation don’t limit the time advisers spend in conversation with clients. That is high quality time and makes advisers more effective at meeting client needs,” Mr Lembit said.
So where does the time go?
Advisers spend up to 10 hours each week preparing client SOAs and on other client related admin. Six hours is spent on the phone or emailing clients, and four hours is spent preparing for client meetings and reviews.
The average adviser sees 7.5 clients on average per week. Crucially, there is a link between client contact and growth – advisers in rapidly growing practices are managing to see an average of 14 clients per week.
“The research clearly shows the key to success for advisers is having a strong client focused approach, and structuring their business around that is vital,” Mr Lembit said.
