Platforum hosted a breakfast roundtable on Tuesday, where we shared research highlights. The distribution specialists in attendance opined on the industry’s direction of travel.
Ostensibly disconnected threads of conversation in fact had a seam in common: the issue of trust.
There was talk of how to convert some of the £2tn cash savings into investments. Social and cultural norms among UK savers mean that they do not implicitly trust the investment journey. Yet once a first-time investment is made, people become much more comfortable with the investing concept, including risk. Newly demutualised banks and privatised utilities made many people shareholders in the ‘80s and ‘90s – do the 2020s need a comparable intervention to grow the investor base?
Then there was the question of whether policies emerging from the FCA’s Advice Guidance Boundary Review can be trusted to shrink the advice gap. Greater access to support is good in principle but only workable for providers if the regulator, ombudsman and PI insurers are aligned on the mission.
Our last few minutes were spent on the Autumn Budget’s impact. The seismic changes to inheritance tax leave advisers with lots of planning work ahead of them, but there’s a lack of trust in the government not to make further changes. How advisers navigate such changes with clients can either strengthen or erode trust.
Changes always risk upsetting trust, and our industry is in flux. But a big break from the norm is also necessary to bring non-investing savers into the fold.
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