Ninety one per cent of consumers would only be willing to spend £25 per hour for financial advice from a supermarket or retailer. A new survey released by market research consultancy, Rostrum Research, comes at a time when mooted fees for an hour of financial advice range from £50 - £250 when the Retail Distribution Review comes into effect this month.

Rostrum Research examined where consumers might be prepared to go for financial advice and products, comparing new entrants in the form of retailers with more traditional players in the market, such as High Street banks and IFAs. The report revealed that the opportunity for retailers to compete by offering more complex advised products may be quite low - less than one in five of respondents said they would feel comfortable paying for financial advice from a retailer.

Mark Houlding, CEO at Rostrum Research, comments: “Our research shows that consumers don’t want to pay very much for financial advice and don’t see supermarkets and retailers as a source of advice. This could restrict the new entrants ability to move on from selling simple commodity products such as home and contents insurance to more complex financial products. Retailers such as Tesco are working around this by offering financial products online and by telephone, without actually giving any advice. However, for those retailers wanting to offer consumers financial advice in store in the future, the challenges may be quite complex. Thirty six per cent of those we surveyed said that they would only take financial advice while in a retail store if they were in a private area. For retailers looking to offer more complex, advised products, this may impact how their store layouts are designed in the future.”

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