A quarter of investors would prefer financial advice to be given over the phone or online in return for lower charges, the results of a survey from Prudential have revealed.
The respective research also shown that nearly 40% of investors would prefer to do their own online fact-finding prior to a financial advice meeting if it results in lower costs to them.
However, nearly 50% investors would expect any phone or online based advice system to be at least half the price of face-to-face advice.
Speaking in reference to the results, Russel Warwick of Prudential noted:
““Giving advice over the phone or online is a logical progression for advisers, and reflects the need to meet changing customer demand. We don’t believe that an ‘all or nothing’ approach is set to emerge but we do expect firms to start integrating non face-to-face aspects of client servicing into their models over time, as clients become more comfortable about receiving advice remotely. Providing these services can be run in a way that is cheaper than the face-to-face approach, it should free up advisers’ time, making their businesses more efficient and enabling them to focus on securing new clients. Conducting annual reviews by phone, for example, would cut travel time which, when added up for all clients, could amount to hundreds of hours over the course of a year.”
