Increased demand in these two product areas resulted in 30,000 more people using the ‘Find an IFA’ service in the first three months of 2008, than in the final quarter of 2007; an increase of nearly a third (31%).
Unbiased.co.uk’s Advice Drivers report demonstrated consumers’ commitment to independent financial advice, with Unbiased.co.uk receiving over half a million requests for details of local IFAs in the last 12 months. As the housing market has begun to slow, consumers have continued to put their faith in IFAs to advise them on how to finance their home loans. The number of consumers seeking advice on mortgages has risen by nearly two thirds over just three months, with nearly 30,000 people requesting details of a local IFA to advise them on mortgages in the first quarter of 2008.
The Advice Drivers report also highlights consumer demand for advice on investment and also specific investment products such as ISAs and Unit Trusts. These product areas showed greater uplift in the last few months than in the same “ISA season” in 2007, reflecting consumers’ faith in IFAs to guide them through choppy markets as we are currently experiencing.
David Elms, chief executive of Unbiased.co.uk, commented: “Our latest report demonstrates that when economic conditions are unpredictable, consumers seek independent financial advisers as their guides through hazardous markets. Consumer needs are constantly changing and whole-of-market IFAs are the best-positioned of all advice types to serve these needs.”
