The Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) has attacked a report which finds that people don’t trust financial advisers.

A research paper by Roy Morgan Research about consumer satisfaction with their financial advice ranked advisers low, with only 25% rating them “very high” or “high”.

By comparison, the advice of other professions, such as accountants (50%), bank managers (33%) and lawyers (32%), was ranked higher.

AFA National President Jim Taggart says the report means advisers must prepare to do battle to win over consumers.

“Trust is fundamental to the advice relationship,” he said.

“We know from our own Back to Basics consumer research that those who use advisers highly trust them – in fact they rank advisers as the most trusted professional, after specialist doctors and dentists.

“However, those who don’t have advisers don’t trust them. We have to ask ourselves why.”

According to Roy Morgan Research Industry Communications Director Norman Morris, the low level in trust “is probably one of the reasons that only a small proportion of consumers (about 25%) use financial advisers”.

But it was not just this research that was creating a negative view of financial advisers by consumers.

Dr Taggart says the superannuation industry fund movement’s multi-million dollar anti-adviser advertising campaigns had a lot to answer for. 

“Such campaigns only stoke and prolong the crisis in consumer confidence brought about by the global financial crisis,” he said. 

As a result, Dr Taggart says advisers will have to stand up and fight to counter these claims.

“We have been too quiet for too long and ultimately, silence becomes consent,” he said.

“The future of advice is now up for grabs and the only people who can fight this battle are those of us who truly believe in the value of advice.

“No-one else is going to fight our battles for us. We have to stand up for what we believe in.”