Advice clients embrace tech: study

A white paper from the AFA, developed in partnership with life insurer Zurich and the Beddoes Institute, found that 77 per cent of clients own a smartphone and 56 per cent own a tablet.

This compares with the 65 per cent who own a smartphone and the 37 per cent who own a tablet among the general population.

The study also noted the different activities clients used mobile devices for, with smartphones being used for more transactional activities and tablets for more 'long form' activity, such as watching videos or reading.

Zurich head of marketing Richard Dunkerley said the findings give a very clear indication to advisers and licensees of where to spend their marketing dollars.

"Clearly the days of building a website and thinking you have engaged with your clients are long past," he said.

"The opportunity is to target marketing [capital] so as to integrate your services into the lifestyle of your client and how best to do that depends on their demographic."

AFA chief executive Brad Fox said if advisers had not considered strategies to incorporate mobile technology into their services, they are not only disadvantaged but are ignoring change.

"Mobile [technology] lumps two very different devices and sets of users together and it's clear from the behaviour of financial advice clients that a 'one size fits all' mobile strategy will not succeed," Mr Fox said.

"Segmenting these users is an important part of increasing engagement with each of the two 'mobile' user groups – the smartphone users and the tablet users," Mr Fox said.

The study was compiled from a survey of 779 financial advice clients.