Asking for help can be one of the most difficult things in the world, particularly if you’re quite proud and have never needed to ask for help before.
Recent research has reinforced this face, revealing that a significant number of people are too proud, embarrassed or unsure to ask for financial advice. But why is it in everyone’s best interests to look past this embarrassment?
What the research found
The research from pension providers Royal London gathered opinions from 4,000 customers and found that one in five would be too ashamed to take any financial advice. For many, they assumed the advice would be too expensive and others simply stated they were quite comfortable looking after their own money.
Only 15% of Brits have sought the help of a wealth management specialist or financial advisor over the last 12 months, which is quite surprising given the great financial upheavals we’ve all been through since COVID. It’s even more surprising given that 41% of adults admit to being more worried about their finances now than they were before the first lockdown. But what has led to this state of affairs?
Why people are reluctant to ask for help
There is a multitude of reasons why somebody might not want to ask for financial help. Perhaps they are worried their loved ones might find out and somehow think less of them? Or maybe, particularly if you are an investor, you worry it might reveal some kind of weakness in your portfolio?
Generally speaking, however, the fact could simply be that financial advice can be difficult to judge. It’s easy to judge a doctor on their advice as if they give bad advice the patient’s health will decline. With financial advice, however, it’s a lot trickier to gauge what has been and what hasn’t been successful.
Some advice can take years to pay off and even decades if those investments are engineered as retirement prospects. It’s always going to be a balancing act between risk and return and as there are no strict laws in the financial markets like there are laws of science, it can be difficult to recommend some financial advisors.
Should you pay for financial advice?
Whether or not financial advice is worth your time and money will depend on several factors?
- What you can afford to lose and whether or not you are able to make strong financial decisions yourself.
- What kind of fees these financial advisors are charging and whether you think it’s worth it for their advice.
- If you trust those advisors enough to not only hand over your money but your reputation to them. You might find, however, that if you take that leap it can feel quite freeing.