The latest quarterly results from Vision Critical’s Wealth Management Index focus on how investors find value in their financial advisors and where they turn to for advice. Canadian investors are still extremely reliant on their advisors and much less likely to search out information themselves. Although trust is still a significant driver in what makes advice valuable, what investors really want is personalized advice which is relevant for them.

Who do Canadians Turn to for Advice?

83% of Canadian investors expect to call their financial advisor when they need financial advice and guidance, with 47% making that their first call. An even higher percentage (53 %) of investors with assets of $1M plus seek out their financial advisor before looking at other information sources.

The next most likely resource for investors looking for information is news and industry specific websites with 38% of Canadian investors doing the legwork themselves and checking in with relevant websites to help frame their financial strategies.

High net worth investors are clearly more confident of their ability to analyze industry data without the filter of an advisor. 48% of investors with over $1M in assets are using industry specific websites, with 21% reading them over before looking at other information sources. Only 33% of those with assets of $25k-$100k bother reading them and only 16% of this group choose to read news and industry specific websites first.

Call a Friend

Not surprisingly young investors and those with lower net worth rely on their family for advice. 43% of 18-34 year olds call family members – a quarter of them choose to call family members before taking any other advice. High net worth investors don’t usually bother to call family members (12%) or friends (10%) for financial advice.

“Understands the market and recommends things good for me personally”

Definition of “Value” in financial advice varies across investor groups however the most common themes are “relevancy” (30% of respondents mentioned), “trust” (24%), “results” (16%) and advisor “expertise” (16%). Relevancy applies to advisors’ ability to apply their insights into current financial and market conditions to individual investors’ personal needs and lifestyle.

The Wealth Management Index report found that investors who feel they receive quality advice are 12 times more likely be satisfied with their advisor (75% vs 6%) than those who do not.

Demitry Estrin, SVP Finance Vision Critical says that quality advice is vital to maintaining client loyalty, “We know from earlier studies that only a very small percentage of investors who are satisfied with the quality of advice they receive will go looking for a new financial advisor. However half of investor who weren’t convinced that they had been receiving good advice were looking to switch.”

Investors want regular updates from their advisors.

Frequent communications are expected for the major investment categories. For over half the respondents the usual annual communication is simply not enough and 34% prefer information on their traditional investments at least once a quarter. Again high net worth individuals have significantly higher expectations with more than 60% expecting traditional investment communications at least once a quarter.

The topics that investors are willing to get updates most regularly about are: traditional investments, risk management, portfolio diversification and alternative investments. Most investors want much less frequent communications about insurance products, charitable donations, inheritance planning and estate planning once every few years.