The Financial Advice Market Review (FAMR) Baseline Report[1] sets out a range of indicators developed to give us a snapshot of the market for financial advice. In line with our commitment to monitor changes in the market, we publish follow-up consumer research to track any movement since we collected those baseline measures.
This research, which was conducted by an independent specialist agency in March 2018, has tracked some of the baseline indicators and provides follow up data on consumer behaviour.
The main findings are as follows:
- more people have chosen to obtain regulated financial advice in the last 12 months
- those who have obtained regulated financial advice in the last 12 months were generally satisfied with the quality of the service received and the price paid
- less than 1% of those who have not obtained financial advice in the last 12 months (and whose circumstances suggest they might have a need for it) reported finding issues with accessing a suitable adviser
- there are indications of a growing awareness of automated investment or pension services, although relatively little use of them so far
As there are some limitations to the survey, its findings give an indicative view of the impact of FAMR measures but should be interpreted with a degree of caution. Details are set out in the full report which is available here:
Read the consumer research report[2]
In addition, we have tracked movements on the supplier side of the market by analysing data collected from adviser firms through the Retail Mediation Activities Return which showed:
- the reported number of adviser staff at financial adviser firms is 26,311, which represents an increase of 700 (3%) on 2016
- UK financial advisers’ revenues and profits have been increasing. Total reported earnings by financial advisers increased by 22% (in the most recent year for which data is available) and aggregate pre-tax profits by 23%
The full data set is available in Data Bulletin 13:
Next steps
A full review of the FAMR Baseline indicators will be carried out in 2019 along with the final post implementation review of the Retail Distribution Review, the results of which will be published early in 2020. Some sources of the indicators are available on a regular basis, such as the FCA’s Retail Mediation and Activities Return (RMAR) and complaints data.