45% of UK adults have never had financial advice, report finds

Less than half (45%) of UK adults have never seen a financial adviser, according to a new report from Canada Life and AKG, which proposes that the “advice gap” could widen before there is a chance of it closing. 

The partnership which brought about the new report, named ‘State of Flux’, considered the many factors that shape the current financial advice market, and the potential challenges and opportunities that may be posed for the future industry. 

The report also revealed that over a fifth (23%) of respondents said they will not be swayed to get financial advice no matter the circumstances, and even assuming the service was free.

Meanwhile, over one in five (21%) who are not engaged with advice said they believe they do not have enough wealth to warrant seeing an adviser. Two additional indicative reasons to do with perception of advice are ‘not trusting financial advisers’ (11%) and ‘being afraid of pushy sales techniques’ (9%).

According to the report, those who have not engaged with financial advice, have “unwavering and often jaded” views of what the industry stands for or could offer them on a personal level. 

One adviser wrote in the report that financial advisory “needs a stronger brand than it currently has”. 

Tom Evans, managing director of retirement, at Canada Life, said: “Closing the advice gap is clearly not a straightforward issue. In fact, we should be honest with ourselves and recognise there will always be an advice gap borne from people’s lack of willingness to engage, and advisers’ capacity to service.  

“We need to be bold and challenge the current status quo, while also recognising that to serve a wider customer group, we need to embrace technology alongside attracting more advisers into the profession.”

He added: “The hope is that research such as ‘State of Flux’ will encourage the industry to have open discussions around challenges such as these, and ultimately keep driving the conversation forward.”