Financial advisers believe their current focus on portfolio management is costing them new business and hindering their ability to help people with effective financial planning, Rathbones Group has stated.

According to a new independent peer study conducted by Rathbones, 73% of independent financial advisers (IFAs) surveyed believe they could grow their business by up to 10% in a year if more time spent managing portfolios was reallocated to client acquisition and financial planning.

The wealth manager’s findings, based on a study of 100 IFAs, also revealed that 27% said they could grow their client base by 11–20%.

Against a backdrop of changing tax, pension, and estate planning rules, the vast majority (94%) of advisers said their profession is best served by focusing on financial planning to address the needs of their clients, rather than day-to-day investment management.

The top challenges reported by IFAs relating to portfolio management were time-consuming rebalancing (61%), market responsiveness (55%), and scalability (54%). Around half (51%) of advisers said they would shift more time to financial planning and client service if portfolio management were handled by a specialist provider.

Investment director at Rathbones, Andrea Yung, commented: “In today’s increasingly complex financial landscape, many advisers are stretched thin trying to balance investment management with comprehensive financial planning – often without the scale or support to do both effectively.”

Nine in 10 (90%) of the IFAs surveyed said they expect to increase allocations to actively managed MPS solutions over the next three years.

Rathbones said the top drivers of this shift will be economic uncertainty (73%), rising market volatility (58%), and demand for greater portfolio resilience (56%).

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