Planners optimistic despite tough times

Australian financial planners recognise that times are tough but few think it will have a significant impact on the profitability of their business.

That is the bottom line of the latest Wealth Insights Adviser Sentiment survey, which reveals that while larger numbers of planners are recognising the depth of the global financial crisis, they have not been spooked by the phenomenon.

The Wealth Insights research reveals a considerable shift in sentiment among planners between April and October this year, but it is far from the extreme shift that many commentators have predicted.

And this may be owed to the fact that the research has revealed that planners’ incomes have not taken a significant hit, with 45 per cent expecting revenue and profit to be a little lower next year, while 40 per cent expect it to be about the same or higher.

Asked whether times were good or bad for them right now, many more planners acknowledged that things were no longer ‘good’ or ‘very good’, but there was hardly any change in the numbers suggesting things were about average.

Whereas in April, 37 per cent of planners were prepared to describe things as ‘good’ and 6 per cent were prepared to describe things as ‘very good’, this had declined in October to 20 per cent prepared to describe times as ‘good’ and only 2 per cent prepared to describe times as ‘very good’.

Commenting on the findings, Wealth Insights managing director Vanessa McMahon said that while the figures were much lower in October than had been the case in April, they still appeared quite high given the market downturn.

She noted that the number of advisers who thought times were ‘bad’ or ‘very bad’ was 31 per cent in October compared to 12 per cent in April.

When planners were asked to describe how they felt about the market downturn, 65 per cent of the plan_ners surveyed were either only slightly concerned or not concerned at all, with only 7 per cent of respondents suggesting they were ‘very concerned’.