Despite much talk about the financial advice gap, there has been little success in closing it. The concern is that the financial advice industry will alienate younger consumers, and give them a negative perception of financial advice, preventing them from using professional financial advisers in future. Financial advice firms must remember that todays’ young consumers will be the next generation of high net worth investors and actively seek to engage with them.

Younger consumers are increasingly using online sources of information and advice, and show a high appetite for using new technologies in order to reduce the cost of advice. However, the role that technology can play in the advice industry has yet to be fully explored. Now that most of the costs of the RDR have been absorbed, financial advice firms should turn their attention to greater innovation, in order to provide advice to less wealthy investors. By seeing the advice gap as an opportunity, rather than a problem, the financial advice industry can help to improve the savings habits of consumers and guarantee the future of the industry.

This report investigates consumer attitudes towards financial advice, examining the channels of advice that consumers use and their attitudes towards this advice. There is a focus on the channels of communication with a financial adviser and how confident people are in managing various aspects of their finances themselves.

Throughout the report, when financial adviser is referred to, this relates to financial advisers who do not operate within a bank or building society. When referring to advisers who do operate within a bank or building society, this will be referenced accordingly.

This report includes consumer research carried out exclusively for Mintel by GMI. The survey fieldwork was carried out in January 2014 and involved questioning 1,930 internet users aged 18+.

In addition to quantitative consumer research, Mintel has also conducted an online discussion group among a demographically mixed group of consumers. This discussion was asynchronous (ie not run in real time), functioning like a blog or bulletin board with questions remaining posted for a pre-determined period of time. This method allows participants to respond reflectively, at their leisure or log off to think about any issues raised and return later to respond. Participants were recruited from Toluna’s online consumer panel.

Crown copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen’s Printer for Scotland.