Britons fail to plan financial futures, study reveals

Wed, 01 Jun 2005

Nearly 80 per cent of Britons spend less than 15 hours annually on planning their financial futures, research from Barclays revealed.

Four in ten people spend no time at all planning their financial futures, the study showed.

Friends and family advise 18 per cent of British adults on their finances, while a quarter uses a financial adviser.

Financial advice is usually sought after people receive a sudden windfall or inheritance, or when they approach a big change in their life like retirement, moving home, divorce, marriage or pregnancy or a new job.

Ray Greenshields, managing director of Barclays UK private client businesses commented, saying Britons are not a nation of planners. He said they found that a third does not even spend time planning their annual holiday.

"It is more worrying, however, that so many of us fail to spend time planning for our financial futures," he said, especially as the financial advice industry gets set to comply with new regulation under 'depolarisation'.

"Depolarisation means little to the average consumer, but the financial advice industry needs to take the opportunity that the latest changes in regulation provide to give customers more choice, more access and more transparency in order to encourage better money management and long-term savings," Mr Greenshields said.

The change in regulation under 'depolarisation' allows financial advisers to offer life, pensions and investment products sourced from a variety of providers as well as their own.

Starting today, financial advisers are also required to use two new documents, known as 'Key facts about our service' and 'Key facts about the costs of our service'.

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