With the turbulent economic climate endangering the future financial wellbeing of millions of UK consumers, independent research conducted by NMG Financial Services Consulting with 477 clients of Sesame members over a ten-month period identified a high level of satisfaction with the level of advice and service provided. According to the research an average of 98% of people said they would ‘definitely’, or be ‘likely’ to, use an IFA again - and/or recommend them to a friend or family member.
The research was undertaken from May 2008 to February 2009 in order to gauge consumers’ level of satisfaction of their experience with their adviser and is part of Sesame’s ongoing Treating Customers Fairly (TCF) assessment work.
Sesame’s compliance director Michael Couzens said: “We believe that this high advocacy rate and people’s willingness to recommend their adviser to friends and family demonstrates the true value of independent professional advice and the high regard that clients have for the service they receive from their IFA.”
Sesame invested more than £2 million in TCF support for members in 2008, including a significant investment in its face-to-face support. Couzens said that embedding TCF has been very challenging for the advice profession, but there have been some positive benefits for IFAs and their clients following the intensive work that has taken place. He continued: “The reality is that the vast majority of advisers were already treating their customers fairly, but even for these advisers there are often incremental improvements that can be made, for example, the increasing trend in advisers explaining and offering fees rather than commissions.”
