Embark unveils Embark Investor Confidence Barometer 2

Are advisers confident they can continue to charge enough? Why aren’t advisers sharing clients’ retirement optimism? How many investors would be comfortable swapping human advice for robo-advice?

The Embark Investor Confidence Barometer is a twice-yearly survey of investor and adviser confidence by the Embark Group (Embark).

It is the only place advisers can simultaneously learn what is on the minds of both advised and unadvised consumers – as well as their peers – on a range of issues.

After an inaugural Barometer in February 2021, Embark once again sought the view of more than 1,000 people (about 250 each of financial advisers and advised investors, and some 500 unadvised investors) and discovered...

Confident female investors are challenging perceptions

The Embark Investor Confidence Barometer 2 has challenged perceptions of low financial literacy and confidence amongst female investors.

It found that most female investors are confident in their retirement prospects, bullish on equity markets, and more willing than men to adapt their portfolio to take advantage of market conditions.

Sara Wilson, Head of Platform Proposition at Embark Group said: “These are fascinating results. There are headlines encouraging women to be more confident investors, but our findings paint a picture of positivity among women.” Find out more…

Long economic Covid: Advisers and clients disagree on retirement prospects

The latest Barometer has revealed a worrying divergence of opinion between advisers and advised investors around the latter’s retirement prospects.

Only 28% of advisers believe that more than half of their clients will have enough money to meet their retirement plans, citing Covid as the main reason.

However, this view is not shared by the majority of advised or unadvised investors who believe that, despite the pandemic, they will have enough money to meet their retirement plans.

Phil Bungey, Chief Executive Officer at Advance by Embark said: “Perhaps the gap in confidence between advisers and clients will always exist. The challenge for advisers will be to try to keep it as narrow as possible.” Find out more…

An unexpected future for robo-advice?

Most advised investors would be comfortable paying for automated advice with no human contact, results from the Barometer suggest.

More than half (57%) of investors with a financial adviser would be comfortable paying for digital advice with no human interaction at all, the research found.

Robo-advice holds a small UK market share with 3% of retail investors preferring this channel, according to GlobalData*.

Toby Larkman, Chief Commercial Officer at Embark Platform, said: “Advisers should consider these findings in the context of their future adoption of digital options. If anything, they show that clients want to hear about [advisers’] digital developments, and how they can benefit.” Find out more…

To access the full Embark Investor Confidence Barometer 2, go to: www.embarkgroup.co.uk/icb

* GlobalData’s 2020 Banking & Payments Survey


Barometer survey details

The Embark Investor Confidence Barometer surveyed the following groups:

  • 251 financial advisers (aged 18+) who have clients and whose company/firm has assets of less than £500 million
  • 254 advised consumers (those who have a financial adviser) with a minimum of £100k investible assets, who have a pension and are aged 35-70
  • 500 unadvised consumers (those who do not have a financial adviser) with a minimum of £100k investible assets, who have a pension and are aged 35-70

Fieldwork was carried out by Censuswide. Censuswide abides by and employs members of the Market Research Society which is based on the ESOMAR principles.


For further information, please contact:

Quintin Keanie

The Agency Partnership (Embark Media Relations)

Email: [email protected]

Tel: 07880 602902


About Embark

Embark Group is a fast growing, diversified, financial services business and one of the leading retirement solutions providers in the UK. The Group trades under the brands Embark, Advance, Horizon, Stocktrade, Vested and The Adviser Centre and operates a wide portfolio of white label services to the Wealth Management, D2C, Robo-Advice, Retail Banking and Workplace markets.

Providing a combination of deep pension expertise and leading technology integration that covers the areas of Investment Wrap/Platform, Investment Brokerage,  SIPP, SSAS, Multi-Asset Funds, Fund Research and Employee Benefit Consulting, Embark works closely with financial advisers and its intermediary distribution partners to deliver their retail savings and investment propositions to consumers of all levels of affluence.

The Group has more than £40bn in assets under administration on behalf of c425,000 consumer clients, operating across eight UK locations (London, Bolton, Dundee, Edinburgh, Leeds, Leicester, Salisbury and Swindon). Embark has been recognised as one of the most innovative wealth tech companies for the past three years.

www.embarkgroup.co.uk

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