Men first use a financial adviser or planner at age 35 on average, according to research by Investec Wealth & Investment (UK).
In contrast the average age of women seeking financial advice for the first time is 41, the survey found. The average age across all people was just 36, reflecting the fact more men use an adviser than women.
In compiling the research, the wealth manager gathered responses from 535 UK consumers with stockmarket related investments.
The study also looked at how people find an adviser and found people turn to their family more than their friends.
A family member recommendation was the most cited pathway to hiring an adviser at 22%. After that came independent research at 21%, via their workplace at 21%, followed by through their bank (16%) and via a friend (15%).
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The researchers also found differences between men and women in how they found an adviser, with a third of women (32% ) going via family member, compared with just 18% of men.
Men are more likely to find their adviser through work (24%) or via their own research (23%).
Of those questioned, people with a higher value of stockmarket investments tended to seek advice earlier in life. The average age of those with over £1m of stockmarket-related investments was 26 when they first started seeing a financial adviser, compared to 39 for people with between £100,000 and £249,999.
Nick Vaill, senior investment director at Investec Wealth & Investment (UK), said: “Despite the ever-increasing ways in which IFAs and wealth managers are able to market themselves to new clients, our research shows that a family recommendation is still the most likely way for people to find themselves a financial adviser.
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“There are many reasons for this – some people want to keep their financial affairs and even the fact they are seeing financial advice very private and for others, it’s only their family that they trust when it comes to making such an important decision.
“Adviser firms need to build capacity in their businesses to enable them to take on these new opportunities. Working in conjunction with a discretionary fund manager has proven to be effective in doing this.”
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