Do You Trust Your Financial Adviser?

The ability to establish trust has long been considered a critical factor in building client-adviser relationships that last.

In fact, the age old rule still applies to all professional service transactions – people do business with those they know, like and trust!

Beddoes Institute has launched a new tool to measure adviser trust in order to further strengthen the qualifying criteria for Beddoes’ Most Trusted Advisers network, the Adviser Trust!

Based on ten questions, the The ability to establish trust has long been considered a critical factor in building client-adviser relationships that last.

Score measures customer loyalty and trust factors specific to financial advisers. This includes the widely recognised Net Promoter Score (NPS), which tests how likely a person is to recommend their adviser to friends or family.

Beddoes Institute Director, Dr Adam Tucker, said the new Adviser Trust! Score provided a more sensitive and relevant measurement tool for the advice industry than the NPS alone, because it incorporates elements of the adviser-client relationship that are unique to the sector.

“…it paves the way for all levels of the advice sector to engage with the challenge of rebuilding trust with clients”

The Adviser Trust! Score gives advisers a rating out of 100. In order to qualify for invitation to the Most Trusted Advisers network, advisers must score a minimum of 85 out of 100. The score is accompanied by an Adviser Trust! Star Rating, which awards advisers with a Score of 85 plus a minimum of 4 out of 5 stars.

Guiding consumers to trusted advisers is win-win

The Most Trusted Advisers network is an invitation only program, designed to serve as a ‘trusted adviser’ referral source for consumers. There are over 100 advisers in the network, with 37 new advisers being added since February 2015.

“It’s an exciting turning point for the advice profession as it paves the way for all levels of the advice sector to engage with the challenge of rebuilding trust with clients and consumers,” Dr Tucker said.

Beddoes validated the Adviser Trust! Score by comparing client and business outcomes for advisers with a high score against those with a lower one. According to Beddoes, advisers with a high score produced better outcomes for clients and greater client satisfaction, whilst simultaneously rapidly growing their advice businesses and increasing profitability.

The Score can be calculated at an adviser, practice or licensee level, and can also be used to segment clients.

“…Often client segmentation is based on historical information such as product purchase and spend, which like the historical record of the stock market, is a poor predictor of the future,” Dr Tucker explained.

“On the other hand, attitudinal segmentation using the Adviser Trust! Score is a forward measure based on the characteristic of the relationship between the client and adviser/practice.”

The Score is expected to provoke advisors to rise to the occasion, resulting in better outcomes for clients.

“It is the clients that give their adviser a high Adviser Trust! Score that will produce growth and profit for advisers, practices and licensees over the next 1-2 years and so it’s vital for practices and licensees to know who these clients are and service them accordingly.”

Interested in finding out how TWD can become your trusted financial adviser? Contact our office at info@twd.com.au to speak to one of our financial experts.