Will your financial adviser retire before you?

Have you considered the age of your financial adviser, if you have one?

Some people steer away from the idea of receiving advice from someone younger than them, believing that the adviser’s lack of life experience will somehow affect the advice that they have trained so hard to give.

If your financial adviser is likely to retire before you do, it will leave you hunting around for a new adviser to trust at a time when you need them most.

That is of course unless they have a younger colleague at the firm ready to step into their shoes and build a relationship with you before your existing adviser retires.

The average age of UK advisers

A report issued last January by Gary Heath, director general of financial services trade body Libertatum, found that the average age of UK advisers was in the mid-50s and that within the previous 5 years 5,898 advisers had left the industry.

This is an alarming number but not as alarming as the indication that a further 7000 advisers plan on retiring within the next 5 years and in 9 years’ time only 18,000 are expected to still be working.

The survey found that only 42% of advisers are seeking to grow and transfer clients internally whereas 45% plan to sell the business when the owner retired, 4 percent intend to merge with another firm and 7 percent have no plans whatsoever.

Trying to make money last

With more and more people living into their 90s and beyond, that means that if you retire at age 65, for example, you will need your money to last at least another 25 years and will need regular reviews to ensure your money continues to be in the right place to meet your needs.

Working with an advisory firm you already have a relationship with and know you can trust, when you may be starting to become more vulnerable, will be of the utmost importance to you.

When seeking a new adviser, some of the things you should consider are:

• the fees they charge,
• the qualifications the advisers in the firm have – some products require advisers to have specialist qualifications and experience,
• the services they provide,
• are they independent or restricted regarding the advice they provide (most high street banks are restricted to the products the bank provides),
• the size of the firm,
• the age demographic of the advisers,
• whether they will provide advice at a time and location to suit you,
• existing client testimonials,
• whether they have had any permission revoked by the Financial Conduct Authority and if they are registered with them. You can check this out by clicking https://register.fca.org.uk/

About us

At Prosser Knowles, we have always strived to develop our team from within and actively encourage the whole of our team to obtain financial qualifications as part of our succession plan to continue serving our clients well into the future.

Additionally, having had three Directors retire during the last 12 years, we are experienced in ensuring that any clients of those retiring continue to be well looked after.  To find out more about the team click here.

To request a call back from one of our consultants please click here.

Written by: Kay Crooke – Associate Practice Director, Prosser Knowles Associates Limited