Survey claims service levels lagging
Financial planners are unhappy with the service they receive from financial service providers, notably in areas of staff helpfulness and underwriting new business, a recent survey has found.
The study was carried out by Taylor Management Consultants through telephone interviews with 1500 intermediaries during October and November of last year. Intermediaries included tied/career advisers, multi-agents, financial planners and brokers’ representatives.
The survey asked the respondents to rank the most valued performance areas from service providers. The two areas which emerged as most valuable were staff helpfulness and underwriting/new business. However, Taylor says the industry continues to perform below expectations in these areas (according to data obtained elsewhere in the survey), suggesting a gap between expectations and reality. Interestingly, these two top priorities also returned the bottom two levels of performance.
Of those areas where the performance was better than expectations were integrity, strength, product knowledge and investment options. These were correspondingly ranked as the fifth, seventh, ninth and 10th priorities, out of a list of 10.
The study also found that while the vast majority of those surveyed are up to date on their understanding of the Financial Services legislation, there is still a considerable number of intermediaries who will not be prepared when the legislative changes are enforced on March 11.
“While 97 per cent of intermediaries said that they were kept well informed on regulatory changes, only 83 per cent of intermediaries felt that they were prepared for the introduction of FSR on March 11. This could indicate that many advisers may be preparing to exit the industry,” survey designer Bill Taylor says.
Other results of the survey found that the majority of intermediaries involved in the survey had a great deal of experience in the industry, with 70 per cent having worked in financial services for 11 years or more. Another statistic was 81 per cent of respondents belonged to a dealership network, reflecting the growing influence of dealerships within the industry.
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