Advisers upbeat for protection market

IFAs are increasingly positive about the protection market’s prospects for 2012, according to a new survey.

Research from Avelo found advisers were expecting pensions and retirement planning to take up the majority of their time over the coming year.

However the number anticipating protection business dominating their workload grew to 22%, up from 20% last year.

It appears the mortgage market is unlikely to see a resurgence this year with just one in ten (10%) predicting it would form their major workflow compared with 14% last year.

Pensions and retirement planning were the two areas in which they expect to offer the most advice in 2012, with two in five (39%) of those surveyed anticipating demand for retirement advice to take precedence, compared to 34% of those surveyed majoring on pensions for 2011.

Overall prospects for the industry were fairly stable with 44% of respondents expecting their client bank to remain the same as 2011 but only 16% believed trust in financial services would grow and lead to a corresponding increase in client numbers.

Similarly, just under half of advisers (47%) expect their revenue forecast per head/adviser to remain constant in the coming year, with just under one third (29%) expecting it to grow and a quarter (24%) fearing a revenue fall.

Paul Yates, strategy and product development director at Avelo, said: "For many businesses 2012 will be a make or break year in finalising their proposition ahead of the Retail Distribution Review (RDR).

"It is a watershed moment for the financial services industry and one that will ensure that for businesses to be successful they must have thought through their business objectives, segmented clients appropriately and have their fee proposition in place, particularly if they want to grow their revenues.

"This research highlights the importance of planning for retirement and the consumer appetite for advice of this kind, especially with RDR and auto-enrolment just around the corner," he added.