Scott Daniels, joint MD of the PLUS Group, believes that while there will be a dip in new business from now until the Autumn, Q4 could see a surge as advice firms look to make up for lost ground in the summer.
Daniels says: “Having gone through the end-of-year tax period, this time of year there is less reason for clients to get in touch or to interact with advice firms around new business. This has been made worse by the crisis and its effect on global stockmarkets.
“The lifeblood of most practices is new business, I think it is going to difficult for firms to maintain the same level of new business if they are not able to see clients face-to-face, run seminars and network.
“The majority of new leads come through networking events and going out to see people, as well as solicitors and accountants. It’s much harder to convince a potential new client you’re contacting via Zoom to trust you with £100,000 of their hard-earned money to invest, especially in the middle of a pandemic.
“Realistically, I see work volumes decreasing until after we come out of the current situation. Then I think we will see a surge in business and we will have a very busy fourth quarter. I think advisers are going to want to make up the business they have lost by seeing new people and visiting existing clients to see what else they can do for them.”
“We are lucky in the way that we work because we are able to keep people working and when things do pick up again we will have the structure and people in place to deal with the uptick in business.”
