Advisers will "undoubtedly" leverage growing long-term care expertise this year to bridge professional connections with solicitors, SIFA has said.
The business development body for advisers and solicitors said it was too early post RDR to note significant trends but is actively urging financial advisers to pay more attention to the long-term care advice area when building professional connections.
Stuart Bushell, managing director of SIFA, said: "It will undoubtedly happen but it is too soon after the RDR to see any real movement.
"We think long-term care advice should be more prominent and we have communicated that with advisers but this will be a gradual shift, not something that takes off in a spectacular way overnight. It takes a while for advisers to change their behaviours."
Advice firm Wingate Financial Planning has moved from advising on long-term care on an ad-hoc basis to a more focused proposition in the last year.
Steve Trinder, co-founder of Wingate Financial Planning and long-term care adviser, said: "Long-term care is a very relevant subject with solicitors. I took it upon myself last year to get more involved with long-term care. It is definitely more prominent in the firm now."
Marcus Dollimore, adviser at advice firm Gerald Pepper Financial Management, said he was studying to become CF8-qualified and that the firm had ramped up its expertise in long-term care in the last 6 months.
According to Dollimore, the RDR was a driver of the heavier focus on long-term care advice in terms of overall attention to the detail in the firm's financial planning process and fact find questions.
He added: "It is also a very good way in to making professional connections with solicitors because clients are generally elderly so it fits well."
