Cass: Advisers 'substantially underestimate D2C threat' post-RDR

Advisers "substantially underestimate" the threat from direct to consumer (D2C) businesses and are "over optimistic" about future revenues post-Retail Distribution Review (RDR), according to a wide ranging study by Cass Business School.

The study, which drew responses from 2,000 people in financial services including a large number of IFAs, found advisers on average expect to garner about £1,500 from each of roughly 150 clients to sustain the £220,000 per annum of gross revenue they require to function as a business. With fees averaging approximately 1% of the assets under advice this means the average IFA client will need to have investible assets of about £150,000. However, Cass research suggest just 1.43 million people in the UK have investible assets greater than £100,000 and just over 0.85m have assets over £150...