The annual Technology and Business survey is now open

Global research firm Investment Trends is once again offering the opportunity to express your views on the platforms and other business tools you use, and how they should be improved, through the annual Adviser Technology and Business Survey.

This is the thirteenth edition of the survey, which saw over 1300 financial advisers participate in 2021.

The survey is now open to all financial advisers, paraplanners and adviser group or network managers.

To show their appreciation, Investment Trends are offering the following benefits upon completion of the survey:

• Entry to the draw* to be one of three lucky winners of a £1,000 Amazon Gift Card

• A £200 Amazon Gift Card for the five most comprehensive answers, as judged by Investment Trends

• Highlighted survey findings, a great tool to benchmark your business against other adviser practices and help you with your due diligence process

Click here to participate in the survey

Key highlights from the 2021 survey conducted from February-March 2021:

Advice business profitability slides further

Covid-19 exacerbated a trend of declining profitability in financial advisers’ businesses. 30%, compared to 11% in 2020 indicated that their advice business was less profitable than the year before.

After COVID-19 hit, more advisers engaged digitally with their clients

Digital engagement moved from sitting in the realm of the early adopters to being mainstream.  Online meetings spiked from around 25% to almost 90% of all advisers adopting this technology in 2021.

Overall, the average number of technology systems used by advisers increased from 2.6 in 2020 to 3.6 in 2021, with digital signature tools being the other major tool adopted through this COVID-19 period.

There was significant demand among advisers for responsible investments

ESG was an important strategic thematic globally.  Almost one in two (47%) advisers suggested they would invest new client money this way over the next 12 months from March 2021.

While very few advisers (less than 6%) considered themselves experts in their understanding of the ESG investment approaches, advisers expected the number of clients receiving ESG advice to double over the three years from March 2021 (from 20% to 41%).

You can participate in the survey here

Privacy

Your responses are confidential and will only ever be shown in aggregate after being combined with those of other survey respondents. Your contact details will only be used to arrange delivery of survey prizes/incentives and to invite you to take part in future surveys, if you have elected to do so.

The survey is conducted by research specialist Investment Trends. Investment Trends abides by the Code of Conduct of the Market Research Society (MRS) and the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).

If you wish, you can review the Investment Trends privacy policy here. If you have any questions, please email Investment Trends.

*You can view the terms and conditions for the draw here.