The staggering volume of regulation that has hit the advisory sector in the past few years has left many advisers spending a lot of their time doing admin work, according to wrap platform Nucleus Financial.
The firm’s yearly survey assessed the views of 257 Nucleus users in the UK and found that just 15% spend more than 40% of their time with clients, a decrease from 21% in 2018
This time is being taken up by back office issues, with 31% spending 40% dealing with administration.
This was true for just 11% of advisers in 2018.
The situation, however, is set to get worse as advisers expect to take on even more clients.
Nucleus found that UK IFAs look after 163 clients on average, an annual rise of 9%.
But two-thirds expect their average client-to-adviser ratio to increase further in the next year – which will make spending time with clients even more difficult.
Bright future
Despite these challenges, Nucleus users have increased the revenue of their respective businesses, with 60% of firms seeing turnover of more than £750,000 ($948,000, €851,000), compared to just over half in the 2018 census.
This is above the industry average of £685,000, according to Nucleus.
Some 96% of users also said they are confident about the future of their business over the next three years.
Barry Neilson, chief customer officer at Nucleus, said: “While capacity issues appear like they are going to persist, it is motivating to see advisers relish the opportunity, converting new business, understanding their clients more and looking to address any residual recruitment problems.
“They are rightly bullish on the outlook for their businesses and the market and we are keeping a close eye on how these numbers may change over the next 12 months.”
