Consumers warming to financial planning
Richard Gilbert
The chief executive of the Investment and Financial Services Association, Richard Gilbert, has flagged that his organisation will be releasing new survey data on consumer sentiment towards financial services at its national conference starting in Brisbane tomorrow.
In an address to a financial services audience in New Zealand last week, Gilbert urged the adoption of a strong disclosure and licensing regime across the Tasman to underpin its evolving pensions savings system.
In doing so, he said that a strong customer disputes resolution system was essential and pointed to recent survey data gathered in Australia covering customer satisfaction levels with the activities of financial planners indicating they were running at substantially lower levels than in either the US or the United Kingdom.
He said the financial services industry needed to track customer sentiment on a range of concerns including quality of advice, the quality of investor materials, the level of fees and the reputation of the industry.
“These results should be responded to by the industry and it should be prepared to share these results with the community and government,” Gilbert said.
Looking at the performance of the Australian industry, he said it had delivered significantly better outcomes on advice, product trust and safety, fees and charges.
“Overall, on a range of 13 indicators, we have moved our industry score from 6.3 to 7.4 over an 18 month period,” Gilbert said.
AUTHOR
Mike Taylor
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