MBIE has published the Colmar Brunton report on focus groups with customers as a part of the FAA/FSP review. The report makes interesting reading (find it at this link). Some highlights for us:
- Consumers were aware of conflicts of interest
- …but had little awareness of the different forms of registration and authorisation and did not understand what the difference was
- There was a definite decision not to take as much advice when investment clients were presented with a fee option
- Clients reported little difference between pre-2011 and post-2011 behaviour in their advisers
- They were not aware of much commission disclosure by insurance advisers – but that didn’t surprise me reading the report. Most insurance advisers do not disclose commissions
There are a host of other good things – and best of all is to simply read the quoted consumer comments.